


The Scarlet Speedster

by StannisIsTheOneTrueKing



Series: The Scarlet Speedster Series [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Karry, Minor Barry Allen/Iris West, Minor Kara Danvers/Mon-El
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-17 01:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 55,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9297662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StannisIsTheOneTrueKing/pseuds/StannisIsTheOneTrueKing
Summary: What if Barry and Kara had felt more than just friendship during World's Finest and acted upon it? Mostly Canon until after the Invasion! storyline, then largely AU.





	1. World's Finest

Barry sped towards the field, doing his utmost to beat Kara there. This was it, he was finally going home after a few days here on yet another Earth. He loved the people here, especially Kara, the adorable and nerdy assistant for Cat Grant who had done all she could to help him get home, but he was needed back home if Zoom was ever going to be stopped. Kara flew down just as Barry arrived and fixed him with one of her patented dazzling smiles.

‘I swear, it’s like she purposefully makes them extra happy to cheer everyone up.’ Barry thought, admiring Kara and thinking. ‘You know, she’s actually kind of cute, I can see why Olsen likes her so much.’ Before shaking his head to dispel the thoughts.

“You really think this is gonna work?” Kara asked Barry.

“Well, watching Livewire and Banshee work together reminded me of something we tried on my Earth once. You and I combine forces, literally. We combine my speed with your speed and if you throw me forward at your fastest, I might just break the dimensional barrier and get back home.” Barry said, looking at Kara with determination in his eyes.

“What do you mean, like, a race?” Kara smirked as Barry smiled and shrugged his shoulders, looking away so he wouldn’t be caught up in her eyes again. Her sparkling, gorgeous eyes.

‘Where did that thought come from?’ Barry thought before trying to dismiss it again.

“Yeah I guess.” Barry said as Kara began to laugh, hands on her hips. She shook her head and looked into the distance as she laughed, Barry staring at her natural radiance and joy.

‘Wow, I must be losing it.’ Barry thought, transfixed at the sight of this beautiful alien.

“Think you can keep up, Girl of Steel?” Barry asked in a teasing tone, grinning at Kara like an idiot.

“Oh ho, just you watch, Scarlet Speedster.” Kara replied with a grin as she approached him. 

“I’m really gonna miss you Barry Allen.” Kara said to Barry with a look of pensiveness of her face as Barry stared at her again.

“I’m really gonna miss you too Kara Danvers. Or Kara Zor El, which is your alien name, ‘cause you’re an alien, which I think is really cool.” Barry said with a smile as Kara broke out into laughter as he said it.

‘Why is he so adorable?’ Kara thought to herself, as she geared up ready to race him. ‘Adorable? Wait? Where did that come from?’ Kara asked herself. ‘I like James…don’t I?’

“I think James Olsen thinks so too.” Barry said with a knowing look and a trace of regret in his voice. Kara pretended not to pick up on it and laughed again.

“What makes you say that?” She stated, trying to pretend that she didn’t notice James had the same feelings for her that she did for him. Or that she thought she did, at any rate.

“You remember before when I told you take things slow? That’s good advice, for a superhero. The opposite advice for two people who really like each other. Maybe it’s time to speed things up.” Barry said, hoping Kara would go after James and he could rid himself of these feelings he’d developed other the last few days for the Kryptonian who had taken his breath away.

“Maybe.” Kara mysteriously replied, thinking whether she should take the plunge or not with Barry or James.

Barry ventured closer to Kara as Kara opened her arms, the two of them going for the hug.

“Come here.” Kara laughed as they embraced one another in the hug, as they started to break away, Barry was struck by a sudden inspiration and, gently taking Kara’s head in his hands, he leaned forward and planted a kiss on Supergirl’s lips. Kara froze for an instant, caught off guard, before returning the kiss herself, wanting to explore every inch of Barry’s mouth, her lips parted as his tongue found its way inside her mouth and battled her own tongue for dominance of the Kryptonian’s mouth. After a few minutes of this, they broke apart, both of them breathless.

“Wow…” Kara muttered in a daze as Barry looked at her, also stunned by what he had done and how good it felt for him.

“Alright.” Barry said, preparing the Tachyon enhancer. “Let’s do this. On your marks.”

“Get set.” Kara said, trying to keep the blush off of her face.

“GO!” Barry said as the two of them raced as fast as they could to generate the speed needed for Barry to break back through into Earth-One. They raced across hills, smiling at one another until finally, the breach started to open and with one hand, Kara lifted Barry and flung him forward, through the breach and back into his own universe.

“Goodbye Barry.” Kara said, looking towards where the Scarlet Speedster had just disappeared. She just knew one day that she’d see him again. She also thought that Barry may have just proved to her who she would rather be with, him or James. She’d just have to settle for James with Barry gone from her world.

Barry arrived on his Earth and started running back towards S.T.A.R Labs, thinking the entire time as he ran with a bright red blush on his face.

‘I’m going to miss you, Kara Danvers. At least now I think I’ve earned the nickname of The Scarlet Speedster.’


	2. Medusa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been months since Barry and Kara kissed, and as Thanksgiving arrives, Earth-38 is beset by portals through the multiverse.

The first Kara knew about something being wrong was when a breach in the space-time continuum opened on her dinner table. Before that, she was living the normal life for a crime fighting alien juggling a job and having the affections of two men.

‘Three if Barry still cares for me.’ Kara thought to herself with a slight blush.

The next she knew was once Cadmus had made their move and Hank Henshaw was kicking her around like a football inside L Corp.

“No-one’s coming to save you.” Henshaw gloated as the NCPD’s bullets ricocheted off of him and his hand closed further around Supergirl’s throat, when another breach opened in the air above them, surprising the NCPD but also Henshaw, allowing Supergirl to move deftly out of his grasp. 

‘This looks a lot like the breach Barry went through.’ Kara thought to herself as she gathered her energy back again. ‘Could it be Barry?’ She prayed to Rao in her head that it was.

As Kara sat in the D.E.O infirmary later that night speaking to Mon-El, and as they kissed, all thoughts of Barry ran from her head as she returned the Daxomite’s kiss with her own tender passion, considering what choosing him over any of the others may mean for her and her future. Someone who gets her, more than James ever could, someone from another world. Before they could take this any further or even speak on it, it was time to go again and deal with Cadmus.

Once Kara had saved the day with a massive amount of help from Lena Luthor, she once again stood in the infirmary, speaking with Mon-El about what had occurred.

“So, are we, are we gonna talk about what happened?” She asked him tentatively.

“Yes, Yes, I want to hear all about how you chased that missile down.” He replied with a smile.

“No, I mean are we going to talk about what happened between us, while you were dying.”

“What, what happened, what did I do?” Mon-El asked with a frown.

They looked at one another, speechless for a few moments, before Kara finally bottled the courage to admit aloud what had happened, thinking over the kiss with him, as well as her kisses with Barry and James. Especially the one with Barry.

“You drooled.” She replied, with a fake smile.

They exchanged laughs for a few moments before she walked out of the room, Mon-El looking forlornly behind at her retreating figure. He knew what had happened, and was hurt that Kara didn’t have the courage to admit herself what had gone on between them.

All was quiet in Kara’s home the next day, until the silence was interrupted by a flower pot shaking by itself, before suddenly another breach opened in the air above the counter, and out from it jumped two men, one wearing gloves and a visor, the other in a hoodie in jeans. These two men were Cisco Ramone and Barry Allen.

“This better be the right place.” Cisco stated, taking of his visor and raising his hand in the air slightly. 

“It is.” Barry muttered as he took in the sight of it all.

“Because if this isn’t the right place, someone is about to be real confused.” Cisco said, looking around as Barry did.

Suddenly behind them the front door opened and Kara walked into the apartment, seeing Barry, she gasped.

‘Oh Rao, he’s back.’ She thought as she drunk in the appearance of the Scarlet Speedster once again.

“Barry!” She cried at the sight of him, Barry meekly raising his hand and replying “Hey.”

‘Wow she looks amazing.’ Barry thought as he saw her surprise, it had been months since he last saw Kara, and she still looked as perfect to him now as the first time he had saw her. He was over her, wasn’t he? He’d tried to make something work with Iris, but now Kara was here as well.

“I knew it! I knew that was you and that weird, space..Portal thing.” Kara cried as she set her shopping down and embraced him once more.

“Sorry, it took a couple of tries to get here. This is my friend, Cisco.” Barry said, gesturing towards Cisco as they broke apart their hug.

‘I wish he/she hadn’t let go.’ The thought crossed both of their minds at the same time as they broke away.

“Well, friend is a loose term, we work together, Hi, I’m Cisco, I have to say, this, is a nice universe you got here.” Cisco said as he shook Kara’s hand and looked around the apartment some more, his frostiness with Barry’s hand in Dante’s death still fresh with him.

“Thank you.” Kara smiled as she looked towards Barry once again.

“Hey, remember last year when I helped you out and you promised to do the same for me?” Barry asked as Kara nodded to him. 

“What are we up against?” Kara asked, dreading to know what could be powerful enough to take on even the Flash and make him come running.


	3. Invasion! (Flash) Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry brings a friend to Earth-1, and he receives a message from 2056...

‘This is just my luck.’ Barry thought to himself with a huff. First Cisco is still mad at him for not knowing about the timeline changes killing Dante, then he can’t save Dante because Jay Garrick showed him how he’d further screw up the timeline, and now, when he’s dealing with Alchemy, Kid Flash and Savitar, ALIENS of all things!

‘I could really do with an alien ally of my own.’ He wistfully thought to himself, wondering what Kara was doing now in her own universe. ‘Probably having a good time with James Olsen.’ Barry frowned.

He spoke with Lyla, who told him and the team all about the history of these “Dominators” before he headed to Star City to get the help of Oliver and his friends. He’d need all hands on deck if he was going to come through with this. Once they’d agreed to join, it was back to Central City and Cisco had agreed to help him vibe his way back to Earth-38 and to meet Kara once again, if this was to be a fight against aliens, he’d rather have his own alien to even out the score a little.

Barry waited outside with Cisco, Felicity and the rest for the Wave Rider to appear. Felicity said she’d sent a message to them to come back to 2016 and help with this threat, and Barry hoped they would show up, they’d need everyone. As the ship appeared in the sky above them Barry heard Dig muttering about never doing drugs because of stuff like this and had to suppress a small grin from his face. 

“Take everybody inside alright? And tell Oliver I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“Well since we’ll be fighting aliens I figured we should get one of our own, right?” Barry smirked as he bade farewell to Felicity and went with Cisco to go and collect Kara.

Barry waited as Kara whizzed around her apartment to get her suit on, before Cisco began to once again vibe his way back to Earth-1, once the portal was open, they stepped through into the hangar, seeing Felicity taking rollcall of who was there.

“That was cool.” Kara exclaimed as they stepped into the hangar, taking in the sight of a whole new universe.

“Guys! Thanks for coming!” Barry said as he rounded up everyone ready to set off. 

“Barry, I thought you were bringing an alien.” Oliver said, arms crossed as he surveyed the scene and waited to find out more on how to take down this latest threat.

“Yeah, we did, everybody this is my friend, Kara Danvers, or as she’s known on her Earth…Supergirl.” Barry said, gesturing to Kara as he did so.

‘She looks as amazing now as ever and I really hope everyone likes her.’ Barry thought as he did this.

“What makes her so super?” Jax asked before Kara floated into the air and charred the House of El coat of arms onto the floor with her laser vision.

“I’m convinced.” Diggle replied as Kara floated down again with a grin.

‘I really hope I impressed Barry’s friends.’ Kara thought to herself. ‘Wait, why would I want to impress them? We’re only meeting this one time, I think.’ Kara thought on that herself, whether or not she’d ever see these people again after this, and if so, in what capacity? As an occasional helping friend or as Barry’s girlfriend and partner?

Barry watched as Kara was introduced to everyone else and Iris came up to him.

“So, Barry, Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow?” 

“Yeah.” Barry affirmed

“Oh my god, he just got so much hotter.”

Barry rolled his eyes and moved away as he muttered “Oh my god.” To Iris’ antics. He knew she was teasing and she liked him, but what he didn’t know is whether he liked her as much, especially with Kara being here. Barry introduced the team to the idea of the Dominators before Kara provided some exposition, revealing that they’d been to the Krypton of her universe once, and attacked it in their quest for more knowledge.

‘Never knew she’d heard of alien invasions by these sort of guys before.’ Barry thought to himself. ‘Maybe Kara knows how to defeat them.’

Oliver suggested Kara to be a stand-in during team training against them, before Mick and Jax suggested that maybe they should nominate an overall leader for the expedition first, Oliver volunteering Barry as the one who brought them all together, before telling Barry how to lead the team himself. As the team went to get suited to battle Kara, Barry pulled Oliver and Kara back to quickly introduce them to one another, with Kara hitting Barry with one of her patented grins, which made Barry blush slightly as he looked at her.

‘Don’t get distracted now Allen.’ Barry told himself. ‘World to save, remember?’

He explained to Kara about how Oliver trained him before Oliver scared Kara with the “I shot Barry and you can’t hold back at all” speech. Barry walked off to speak to Cisco, finding him speaking about tech improvements with Ray, at the sight of Barry though, Cisco bolted and Barry went to ask Ray about where Lenard Snart was, Captain Cold apparently not with the rest of the Legends.

“What happened?”

“He sacrificed himself. Saved us all. He died a hero.”

“A legend.” Barry trailed off sadly, staring off with tears in his eyes as Wally showed up and began to argue with Iris about whether he could join in.

Barry suited up himself to get ready to go fight against Kara before Oliver and he were approached by Stein and Jax about a message they’d received.

‘What could they possibly have for me alone?’ Barry thought as they led him away.

“A war is coming, Captain Hunter, and at some point you’re going to be called back to fight it. So you need to know that while you and your team have been in the temporal zone I made a choice that affected the timeline. As you know, when you alter the past, those changes affect the present and get compounded in the future. When you return, you will be in a new timeline that I created, where everyone’s past and everyone’s future has been affected. Including yours. When you come back, don’t trust anything or anyone, not even me.” Barry listened to the recording of his future self with Oliver, before trying to explain what he did and why, and how this affected everyone.

Oliver and Jax argued about whether or not to tell everyone, with Oliver advocating the team wait until after the threat is over, to not distract them.


	4. Invasion! (Flash) Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry explains Flashpoint but isn't a total coward this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changed it slightly so Barry knows most of what Jay told him in 3X09, plus he isn't a coward who just takes the abuse.

“You made a mistake Barry, its part of the job. We can’t deal with it today.” Oliver said as they got ready to head back out to meet the team. Barry was glad for his support here, he knew he’d screwed up, and it wasn’t like Caitlin and Cisco didn’t give him enough hell over it already, at least Ollie understood what he was thinking and sympathised with him.

They walked out of the trailer to see Kara had finished everyone off and they were all rolling on the ground. Oliver called for everyone to get up as Sara commented on how hot Kara was, Kara blushing at it.

‘I wish Barry thought that too.’ Kara thought with a pout, looking towards the Scarlet Speedster, who seemed absorbed in his own thoughts.

‘Sara’s right, Kara is hot, she always looks perfect.’ Barry thought to himself as he tried to get his head back into the game of taking the fight to the Dominators.

Barry watched as everyone walked off yet another beating from Kara, who seemed reluctant to go on when all she was doing was hurting the rest of the team, before Cisco pulled Barry aside and asked whether or not he’d told everyone about Flashpoint yet.

“I’m gonna tell them, yeah, when this is finished.”

“When this is finished…even though you’re about to lead them through an alien war, even after Flashpoint, after everything you’ve messed up, all the lives you’ve changed?! You still don’t think you should tell them?!” Cisco shouted, drawing the attention of the others to Barry and Cisco.

“Tell us what?” Sara asked, as Cisco gestured for Barry to go on.

‘Oh fucking hell, thanks for this Cisco, just what we needed right now.’ Barry thought as Oliver looked at him with a grim look as if to say ‘Just get this over with.’

“Jax and Professor Stein found a message from me, in the future, saying right now I can’t be trusted.”

“Why would future you say that?” Sara asked

“I think, because I went back in time and changed the timeline, and now things here are different from before I left. Including some of your lives.” Barry said with a sigh.

“Some of our lives? Like who?” Kara asked with a confused look, Barry refusing to meet her eyes, not wanting to see a look of hurt or betrayal in those beautiful orbs.

“Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, Dig.” Barry said with a frown.

“How did you change all those lives?” Ray asked, fixing Barry with a frown, they’d been fighting time aberration’s for months and now Barry was suddenly one?

“Cisco’s brother, Dante, he was still alive in the old timeline. Caitlin didn’t have the powers of Killer Frost either. In the universe I created when I stopped Eobard Thawne killing my mother, Wally was the Flash, not me, and Diggle, baby John was baby Sara. I’m not even sure how that one ended up changing…” Barry trailed off.

“So, you just erased a daughter from my life?” Diggle asked, looking angry at Barry.

“Hey, not on purpose!” Barry defended himself. “I’m not even sure how changing the timeline affected the gender of your baby, since I was DEFINITELY not directly involved within that in any form.”

“You still did it Barry!” Cisco called out, venting his frustrations as well.

“It’s not like I knew what would happen when Flashpoint was reset, did I?” Barry sounded hurt. “I didn’t intentionally screw up anyone’s life. I wanted to make mine better, I’d just became an orphan, didn’t I deserve a little happiness or does it always have to be me who makes the sacrifices?” Barry asked, looking around and seeing Cisco refusing to meet his eyes all of a sudden.

“I stopped Thawne, lived for a few months happily with my parents, Cisco, you were rich, Caitlin didn’t know any of us, Wally and Iris didn’t know me and were the Flash team, I could have left you all to it and stayed happy, but I realised I needed to become the Flash again and change it all, and you know what that involved? I had to release Eobard and then literally BEG Thawne to kill my mother, he revelled in causing me additional pain that night.” Barry felt himself tearing up but it was time to get all of this off of his chest. Barry saw some of the others look at him with pity as the red mist descended and he had to finish off his tirade. 

“So I finally deal with all that to find out all these little changes have occurred, and when I’m finally coping with all of that, along comes Alchemy, who gives everyone who had powers in Flashpoint these powers again, including Wally, which is why there is now a second speedster in Central City, oh and it turns out, he’s not even the threat as he’s working for a guy named Savitar, who, get this, is MADE OF METAL, RUNS SO FAST HE LOOKS LIKE LIGHTNING TO ME, AND IS THE GOD OF SPEED! How am I meant to defeat the God of Speed? Anyone!?!” Barry raged as the others winced, it sounded like a bad break for Barry all around here.

“Savitar apparently has deemed me worthy of being a threat to personally crush, but when I can only see him when he’s stood still, and even then he’s still too fast for non-speedsters to see, I’m really truly screwed against this guy, I mean, I fought him, and had Caitlin not used her powers against him in the nick of time, today would have been my funeral and to top it all off, bloody alien invasion and goddamn Cisco can’t wait until after we’ve dealt with this to drop this bomb on you all.” Barry finished venting to see the sheepish looks on the faces of some of the others. They all had their own problems, and in light of that, they’d tried to think Barry had none of his own and he was just being selfish.

“I’m sorry, Barry.” Ray said before Sara repeated the sentiment.

Kara’s eyes widened as she listened to her friend’s tirade. She knew it’d be bad, but not just how bad. Cadmus has been neutered for now and she knew Kal could handle Hank Henshaw if needed, perhaps she’d stay on Earth-1 for a bit after the Dominator’s were taken care of, see if she couldn’t stop this Savitar with Barry.


	5. Invasion! (Flash) Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team are ambushed and Barry and Oliver must fight for their lives

Barry watched as everyone else got ready to head off to go and rescue the President. Despite some home truths being revealed, many of the team didn’t feel too comfortable with Barry at the moment, especially with what his future self has said in his message, and certain elements believed it would be better without Barry being there.   
As they got ready to head off, Barry pulled Kara aside, a look of hurt on his face.

“You still trust me, right?” Barry couldn’t bear to think that Kara of all people couldn’t trust him, if she had lost her faith in him, Barry realised, then he didn’t know if he’d have the strength to go on fighting.

“I’ll always trust you.” Kara firmly stated, “It might take a bit more to convince them.” She trailed off. Barry would always have her back, she knew that, and so she’d always have his. If she couldn’t rely on her favourite speedster, and he couldn’t rely on her, who could they depend upon?

Of course, Oliver disagreed, and had stated he wouldn’t be going if Barry wasn’t also in the team.

“Then you’ll be here, Oliver.” Diggle stated. Sure, he was sorry for the stuff Barry had been through, and if he thought more on it, then he’d apologise for acting so rashly, but Barry had changed his child’s gender through his actions, and Diggle wanted a daughter to spoil.

Kara looked around as she landed behind the rest of the team, the coast looked clear enough, no perimeter Dominators, the President was inside the building, and everyone looked ready to go. At least they were until Mick Rory of everyone started questioning her about her X-Ray vision and asking if she could check everyone out where they were.

‘I wish I had Barry here to help smack some sense into this guy.’ Kara thought as Sara told her to ignore Rory.

They walked into the warehouse, to see the President, hands cuffed in front of him, wandering about.

“Get me out of here!” He called as the heroes approached, remarking on how easy this seemed.

Suddenly, a Dominator appeared, startling them. Kara told it to release the President and they could talk, before it stated they did not want him and vaporised the President.

“It’s a trap!” Diggle yelled before the Dominator placed its hand on a red crystal it had with it, suddenly a red mist descended down onto the team, attacking each of them, a symbol burning into their heads.

“Supergirl! Do something!” Mick yelled as Kara herself was knocked over by the force of the mental attack. She could feel herself slipping away, her conscious mind being replaced by a desire to attack and to harm all who stood in the way of achieving her aim.

As the team went to find the President, Oliver was taken back to Central City by Barry, back to S.T.A.R labs, where Barry showed him Thawne’s Time Vault.

“What is this?” Oliver asked, looking at the Time Vault

“This is, an article from the future, a story about me vanishing. It used to be written by Iris West-Allen. But now, I don’t know, something’s changed about Iris, something’s changed in our future.” Barry stated forlornly. “God, what did I do?” he whispers, sounding devastated.

‘Maybe it’s something bad, but maybe it’s something else.’ Barry thought to himself, a woman in red and blue flashing across his mind for a moment.

“Barry, this is a weird looking newspaper article, it doesn’t mean anything, you need, you need to stop beating yourself up over this.” Oliver firmly stated, knowing beyond a doubt that this was a natural thing to have done, had he had the powers that Barry does, of course he’d do the exact same thing! Who wouldn’t change the past to save their loved ones if they could? The rest of the team needed to realise this, Barry did this act that anyone would, he realised what it cost and tried to fix his mistakes. Nobody had any right to be angry at Barry for that in Oliver’s mind.  
Oliver informed Barry of what happened when the Queen’s Gambit went down and how his father killed himself to save Oliver’s life, with Oliver telling Barry that he isn’t a God and can’t save everyone. Suddenly, an explosion from outside and Cisco’s voice called them both out of their bonding session and to the disaster outside, where it appeared they were being attacked by their own team.   
“Oh, things just got so much worse.” Barry trailed off, seeing the team attacking S.T.A.R labs.

“Guys, can we talk about this?” Barry asked before they began to attack Oliver and himself. 

“Guess not.” Oliver replied before Sara threw a throwing star at them.

Looking up, and seeing Kara as one of the attackers, Barry felt his heart slide into his stomach. ‘I can’t hurt her, I don’t know if anything I do WOULD hurt her, but if it does, I don’t think I can hurt her.’ Barry thought to himself.

Barry suddenly felt himself blasted through the air and realised it was Kara that had attacked him. He raced to grab Oliver and run behind the S.T.A.R labs sign. He couldn’t attack her, even though it seemed she had no qualms against attacking him for the moment.

Barry quickly sped away, knocking down Diggle before heading onto the roof of S.T.A.R, followed by Firestorm, Ray and Kara, as they all prepared to attack him again, he charged up a spin and fired off a blast at them all, knocking Ray and Firestorm down, with Kara barely noticing as she used her heat vision against Barry.

‘Damn, if this wasn’t looking like a possible fight to the death, I’d be impressed.’ Barry thought just before he was blasted off the roof by the heat vision and hit the floor.  
‘I’ll feel that in the morning.’ He cringed as he saw Sara and Diggle fighting Oliver in front of him. As Barry went to get up he saw Sara, Thea and Diggle approaching him, weapons ready as he lay on the ground, before a streak of yellow passed behind them and sent them all flying, when Wally West stood before him, offering Barry a smile.

“Wally?” Barry asked in shock.

“Kid Flash.” Wally replied with a grin, before being thrown through the air himself as Supergirl delivered a punch to his chest, sending him careening beyond Barry and hitting a wall, knocking him out. Barry zoomed over to him as Oliver landed, they found out about the signal in the salt mine, with Barry telling Oliver to get to cover.

“If they can’t shut it down, maybe she can.” Barry stated with a nod in Kara’s direction, who hovered before them, ready to release another blast.

‘Hopefully she won’t hurt herself taking it out though, or hurt me either.’ Barry thought as he quickly devised a plan for using Supergirl’s strength to take the signal out.

“Hey Supergirl!” Barry called as Kara fixed him with a stare. “Let’s finally see who’s faster!” Barry called before speeding away, Kara quickly on his tail. 

They raced through the city, Barry dodging several heat vision blasts as he led her to the salt mine, determined to snap her and the others out of it. 

“Too slow.” He remarked with a smirk as she once again missed him, chasing him throughout the salt mine and smashing into columns, destroying the support structure of the building. With every miss she’d get angrier with him and more reckless, just what Barry needed if he was going to bring the place down and hopefully crush whatever was making the signal.

Barry stood in front of the machine he knew has to be causing it and stared off against Kara for several moments, before she threw herself at him with a burst of speed, passing straight through the air as he vibrated to the side of her, she smashed through the machine and the red mist rose in the air for several moments before disappearing into nothing.

Kara looked around as the symbol on her head vanished, and she saw she was stood in an old building with only Barry before her.

“Barry?” Kara asked with a confused look, wondering how she had got there and what had happened.

‘The last thing I remember was just pain, and a red mist. How did I get here? Why is Barry here? I didn’t hurt him did I?’ Kara thought to herself, she didn’t know if she could bear to hear that she’d harmed Barry in any way.

“What happened?” Kara asked as Barry heard Oliver in his ear report they were all back.

“You didn’t kill me, so my days looking up.” Barry replied with a grin as he walked towards Kara.

“I’m so sorry-“Kara started, looking devastated at the thought of herself trying to kill Barry.

“You’re not the first superhero to be mind controlled.” Barry grinned as he felt the tension drain away. They were ok. They were all ok. 

He wrapped his arms around Kara as she stood in shock, wondering how she could have possibly tried to harm Barry, but feeling his arms around her, she simply wrapped hers around him and let herself sink into his loving embrace. This felt right, being in Barry’s arms. This felt good. 

As they broke apart, Barry asked Kara to scan the city to make sure that there weren’t any others of the devices that controlled everybody whilst he returned to S.T.A.R labs to work out what the next part of the plan was going to be.

He arrived back to see the Felicity asking what being mind controlled was like, and Jax mention how he was shocked Mick had a mind to be controlled, Barry looked around to see the smiling faces of his team mates, his friends, and knew, if that was the best the Dominators could do, they could handle this.

“Barry. About before… Message or no message. We’re with you.” Ray said to the speedster, grinning as he did. Barry couldn’t help but feel a grin moving onto his face as well. United, they could handle anything.

“Thank you.” Barry looked around.

“Where’s Supergirl?” Thea asked him.

“Scanning the city to make sure there aren’t any more of the orbs that whammied all of you.” Barry replied.

“Ok, so now what?” Diggle asked.

“We call Lyla, tell her these Dominator’s aren’t here peacefully.” Oliver replied, as the team got ready to go out and deal with the threat.

As they began to walk inside, a strange noise was head and a yellow beam engulfed Sara before she vanished in an instant, as the team looked around in shock, another two beams captured Diggle and Thea.

“Everybody inside! Go!” Barry yelled as Mick, Felicity and Jax ran indoors, another beam capturing Ray as he moved.

Oliver and Barry were the only ones left, Oliver further from the inside than Barry, when the beam hit again and grabbed Oliver. Barry sped towards his old friend, but before he could grab a hold of him, Oliver was gone.


	6. Invasion! (Arrow)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all know what happened to those aboard the Dominators ship, and we know some of what Barry and Kara did, but what else did they do during the Arrow portion of the crossover?

Kara landed back in front of S.T.A.R labs to see Barry on his knees, sobbing, as Cisco and Felicity looked to be gathering all the tech they could carry, and everyone else was trying to look busy.

“What did I miss?” Kara frowns as everyone looks at her.

“The Dominators had some kind of beam, they took Diggle, Thea, Ray, Sara and Oliver.” Caitlyn quickly explained to Kara as Barry got up and walked over to Kara, wiping his eyes.

“I wasn’t fast enough Kara. I was right there and I wasn’t fast enough…”Barry trailed off as fresh tears threatened to escape from his eyes.

“It’s ok, we’ll get them back.” Kara reasoned as she wrapped her favourite speedster in a hug, which he hesitantly returned. She’d be damned if her new friends stayed gone and the Dominators got away with this, especially with how this was impacting Barry. She wasn’t surprised he’d found some way to blame himself for this mess, because that was just Barry, selfless to the core.

Barry returned the hug, despite knowing that it was his fault. If only he’d been faster. He knew he could get faster, he knew it was all his fault Oliver and the rest of them were gone and he knew he couldn’t rest until he helped save them. Every single time it looked like things could start to look up, the Dominators put them on the back foot.   
He breathed in the smell of Kara’s hair on his face as they hugged, wondering how someone could make their hair smell as sweet as she made hers. Despite this, however, he still couldn’t come to believe her words, that they could get them back. He knew it was all his own fault.

“Barry, can you rush us over to Star City? We need our team, hopefully we can use our tech there to track where they took the others.” Felicity came up and asked him.

“Yeah, but I can only take one at a time, Kara, are you ok with carrying the other?” Barry asked his friend before she nodded, grabbing Cisco to avoid any awkwardness with Barry as Barry held onto Felicity and ran as fast as he could towards Star City.

“We’ll be back soon, hopefully with the others.” Kara smiled at those they were leaving behind in Central City before she too flew up into the air and sped off towards Star City.   
Barry and Kara quickly got Cisco and Felicity to the Arrow cave before letting them two go off to do their tech stuff.

“We can’t do anything at the moment.” Barry trailed off, looking down, hating the idea that he was failing Oliver by being useless.

“Hey, cheer up. We’ll know where they are soon enough.” Kara encouraged him with a smile. “Want to show me where the best place to eat in Star City is for now?” She prodded him and he smiled at her eagerness.

“Sure, want to try Big Belly Burger then, Girl of Steel?” Barry winked at Kara before speeding off, Kara laughing before racing into the air and following behind him.

As Barry introduced Kara to the delights of Star City’s Big Belly Burger, their phones pinged, and checking, they saw Felicity and Cisco needed them to go to a warehouse and meet up with some of the Arrow crew to get a regulator which they could use to find the kidnapped heroes.

“Well, looks like go time again.” Kara smiled at Barry, glad to see he’d cheered up a little. She couldn’t stand seeing him so lifeless like he had been since Oliver was taken.  
Barry and Kara raced to meet up with the other heroes, Barry offering to carry all of them here, Curtis and Holt taking it up whilst Wild Dog stated he’d rather travel solo. As Barry rushed Curtis and Holt there and waited for Wild Dog to arrive, Kara flew a perimeter check and cased out the building.

‘Let’s not mess this one up Kara, Barry’s counting on you.’ Kara thought to herself as she made sure their target was inside the building.

“It’s so cool Felicity reached out. It’s awesome to meet you.” Holt said to Barry as Wild Dog arrived.

“Yeah, well, wait till you meet her.” Barry replied as Kara landed on top of the nearby container, surprising the three new recruits.

‘She makes one hell of an entrance.’ Barry thought with a smile as Kara hopped down to greet the others.

“Hey everyone!” Kara greeted with a smile as Mad Dog climbed off his bike.

“Oh I’ve had enough of this.” Mad Dog frowned as he headed off inside, with Barry and Kara both looking at him questioningly. 

“Yo, want some company?” Barry asked as Mad Dog tried to take point and head off.

“Not really.” He stated bluntly.

“Ok, so what exactly is it you’ve had enough of?” Barry asked. If Mad Dog had a problem with him, he could handle that, but if he was going to start on Kara for no reason, Barry couldn’t tolerate that.

“Nothing, I just didn’t know there were flying metahumans now.”

“Oh, well Supergirl isn’t a Meta, she’s an alien.” Barry stated as Kara joined up with them from the flanks.

“Oh but I’m one of the good ones.” Kara smiled at Mad Dog, hoping to endear herself to him as well, she never could have enough new friends.

“There are no good ones.” Mad Dog stated bluntly as he tried to ignore the two freaks following him.

“Hey, what’s your damage man?” Barry asked, hoping he could help Mad Dog work through his issues, and wanting him to lay off of Kara.

“My damage, is that people like you two have the power of Gods and you think you can make the world a better place by putting on a fancy costume.” Mad Dog bitterly spat out, why couldn’t this Meta take the hint and leave him alone?

“No we…we think we make the world a better place because…we do.” Kara lamely stated, with a glance at Barry and a shrug as she faced Mad Dog once again.

‘She’s adorable when she’s trying to get someone to like her.’ Barry thought to himself as Kara shrugged her shoulders at Mad Dog. ‘It isn’t like she needs to try to be adorable.’ Barry blushed despite himself.

“Look around. Moment he showed up, Meta’s started appearing everywhere and now you show up and we get aliens. Superpowers are evil man, and I don’t want anything to do with them. Or with either of you.” He stated before forging on ahead, opening the next door and leaving Barry and Kara to stare, shocked, behind him. 

After a few moments of what sounded like some blasting noises, Barry rushed in to find their target about to vaporise Mad Dog with an electrical blast from her fingertips, he raced over and pulled Mad Dog away before rushing back and landing punch after punch on the target, sending her flying to the floor. Barry looked up to see Kara land on the floor, shaking her head to move her hair from her face. He could feel his own face heating up as he stared, transfixed at the sight of her. She smiled and they walked towards one another, high fiving in the middle before Barry rushed to the far wall and Supergirl picked up the target. Kara smiled to herself as she punched their enemy towards Barry, who ran forward, catching her in mid-flight and flinging her towards Kara once again. As she landed on the floor in a heap, Holt and Curtis approached them.

“That was awesome.” Holt stated.

“There’s the regulator. She seems…pretty attached to it.” Curtis chuckled as Barry and Kara just stared at him.

“Maybe just remove it.” Barry stated as Curtis got to work on retrieving the piece of tech from her arm.

“Thanks for the save.” Mad Dog grumbled as he approached the group, Kara putting her hands on her hips.

“Is that all you have to say?”

“I don’t do apologies, sweetheart.” He stated as Kara shook her head. “But if super powers are a thing, it’s good there are guys like you to protect the world. You know the Green Arrow would have kicked my arse if I’d talked to him like that?”

“Oh yeah.” Barry said

“Yeah, yeah, we know.” Kara stated as Barry nodded his head to her words.

Kara and Barry quickly got the others back to the Arrow cave before heading off themselves once again.

“So, where were we?” Kara asked Barry with a grin.

“I think I was proving to you why our food is superior to your Earth?” Barry teased with a grin.

“Oh really, Scarlet Speedster?” She shot back.

Barry walked over to her and hugged her once again, glad she was here and that she was within his reach. Kara quickly threw her arms around him as well.

“I’m so glad you’re here Kara.” Barry stated.

“You know I’m glad to see you too Barry. Now shall we go save everyone?”


	7. Invasion! (Legends) Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Team Arrow rescued, its time to plan the next course of action.

With the news that the Wave Rider had rescued those that the Dominator’s had taken captive, Barry and Kara raced back to S.T.A.R labs to see what the next plan of attack was going to be against the Dominator’s. They were determined, no matter what, the Dominator’s would not win.

“What’s our status?” Oliver called as the group approached Barry and co.

“Nothing, since the Dominator’s paid their little visit to mess with our heads.” Barry ruefully sighed.

“Why would they do that?” Nate asked.

What if they were trying to pit us against each other, in order to gain Intel about metahumans?” Ray suggested.

“Yeah, I wish they would have just sent us an IM with a questionnaire” Felicity remarked.

“Well, Meta’s pose the biggest threat to their invasion, it’d make sense they want to get to know their enemies.” Kara suggested, looking around to see who else considered it.

“By kidnapping people.” Stein stated with a look of sudden inspiration. “Perhaps they were searching your minds for potential metahumans vulnerabilities.” 

“I think it’s time we returned the favour.” Oliver stated, the Green Arrow persona returning to his face as he thought on how they messed with his head. 

“What do you wanna do, kidnap one of them now?” Diggle asked.

“Since that first ship landed, they’ve kinda been in short supply.” Barry stated before Nate brought up how he’d tracked where the first fight sixty years before had been against the Dominators, suggesting they go back to then and kidnap one of the Dominators.

“Time Travel…I’m definitely in.” Cisco remarked with a look of awe, missing the frown on Barry’s face at his word.

‘How come if I time travel it’s a bad thing but it’s cool if Cisco does?’ Barry thought to himself.

“Hold on, Professor Stein and Caitlin have been talking about a way to take down the Dominator’s and they could probably use your help.” Barry stated as Cisco glared ahead, refusing to meet his eyes.

“Pass.” Cisco rudely stated before Felicity agreed that she’d like to take the chance to experience time travel for herself.

“The new President called.” Barry said as the time travelling crew headed off to get ready. “Which would be cool, under different circumstances, but she wants to meet with all of us.” He said, putting his hands on his hips. 

‘Wow, Barry looks hot when taking control of a situation.’ Kara thought to herself with a blush as she watched him and Oliver arrange to meet with the new President. 

“Let’s bring Ray and Sara as backup.” Oliver stated with a nod.

“What about me? I can do backup.” Kara suggested, wondering why Oliver wanted to leave their big gun behind, in case the Dominator’s went after the new President as well.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Oliver looked at Kara before walking off, Kara casting a confused glance towards Barry, who just shrugged, before she followed Oliver.  
“I would like to minimise your involvement in this.” Oliver stated briskly as Kara and Oliver stood away from the others. He may like the woman, but this was their Earth, their fight and he needed to be able to count on the others without relying on Supergirl for everything.

“Why? Because I’m an alien?” Kara asked, outraged at the thought of being discriminated against by Oliver. “I also happen to be your biggest weapon.”

“You’re an unknown quantity and this is not personal.” Oliver stated firmly.

“Except that’s exactly how this feels.” Kara firmly rebutted, glaring at Oliver. She’d done nothing but try her best since she came here to help everyone, she helped save Oliver, and yet he wanted to just throw her aside because he got a taste of what the Dominator’s were like and was scared of aliens?

Oliver went on about how he needed to regain a sense of normalcy in this situation and asked her once more to remain before walking off to go prep to meet the new President with Barry, leaving Kara to her thoughts, a scowl etched on her face. As she marched off in a huff, she didn’t notice Barry watching her, a look of worry on his face.   
‘Good for nothing Oliver…I helped save his life, I wouldn’t even be here if not for Barry! Why is he mad at me and not Barry for this sense of normalcy disappearing?’ She thought to herself before mentally rebuking herself. It was not Barry’s fault for all of this and nobody could blame him, it wasn’t like Flashpoint was at fault for the Dominators, was it?

Barry and Oliver headed off with Ray and Sara outside of the hangar to where the President was due to meet them. As they waited for the President to arrive, Barry couldn’t shake the image of Kara’s scowling face from his mind.

“Hey, um, what did you say to Kara earlier? She seemed pretty angry, I didn’t know she was capable of getting angry.” Barry said to Oliver, hoping his old friend hadn’t made things uneasy with his Earth-38 friend. Oliver was a brother to Barry, but Kara was the woman he loved. He couldn’t side with either of them if they came to blows and he knew it.

“We’ve got movement.” Sara called out as four vehicles suddenly raced down the runway, before stopping before them, with men climbing out of them and holding guns. Out from one of the cars an older man stepped out and fixed them with a glare.

“I’m sorry. President couldn’t make it.” He smirked.

“Who are you?” Barry asked, not liking the look of this one bit.

“If I tell you.” The man started, as his agents raised their guns and aimed at the team. “I’ll have to kill you.”


	8. Invasion! (Legends) Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is given an ultimatum that the rest will not accept.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. See, we’re the good guys. The President invited us here.” Ray tried to reason with the secret service agents as Barry and Oliver grimly surveyed the scene and Sara prepared to fight.

“Barry, I think it’s time you do something, and fast.” Oliver growled as Barry sped off to deal with the agents, one of them firing at the sight of the orange blur. Barry quickly turned the bullet around as he slammed into some of the other agents, with Oliver, Sara and Ray also going on the offensive and moving to take down the threat. As the immediate group was taken down, a bullet bounced off of Ray’s suit and landed on the floor.

“Sniper!” Oliver gruffly called out.

“On it.” Barry flashed off to take on the sniper as the others handled the rest of those in the area, who were starting to get back to their feet and charge towards the heroes once more. As they dispatched the agents, Barry reappeared, getting into the face of their leader.

“We’re trying to help you, this is how you thank us?” Barry growled, he was tired of all of the trouble these Dominators were causing, and now the government had to turn on them?

“You don’t understand, the reason the Xenomorphs are here-“ Agent Smith (Possibly King Faraday, but as we only hear him called Smith by Kara I’ll refer to him as Smith until CW confirms he’s Faraday)

“Is because they have a beef with the metahumans, tell us something we don’t know.” Sara drawled. 

“Like what exactly have we done to them?” Barry asked. 

“Nothing. Yet. But they see individuals with powers such as yours as a future threat, and frankly, so do I.” Smith stated firmly, glaring at Barry as if all the worlds’ ills were his fault.

“What brought them back?” Barry asked as he listened to the agent explain how the attack in 1951 was just a reconnaissance mission by the Dominators, rather than an invasion as it was now, after Oliver stated that he could call them off.

“You did, Mr Allen.” Agent Smith smugly stated as everyone’s eyes widened at the implication that none of their identities were safe.

“He knows who you are.” Ray trailed off. Barry had only a few thoughts in his mind at that moment.

‘What did I do? How do I fix it? If they know us all, do they know about Kara? Is she safe on this Earth?’

“You threatened the entire universe, when you used your powers to upset the normal course of time.” 

“You’re talking about Flashpoint? How do you even know about-“Ray asked.

“They told us.” Smith stated bluntly.

“Look, I made a mistake. I’m not going to let it happen again.” Barry firmly nodded. He would not screw up the timeline ever again if he could help it.

“For the past sixty years we have enjoyed a truce with your so-called Dominators. You broke the truce.” 

“What do they want?” Oliver called out, not liking the way this was heading one bit.

“I’ve negotiated a deal with them. If…Mr Allen surrenders himself, they will leave us in peace.” You really want to save the world? Here’s your chance.” Smith shook his head as the heroes looked at one another and at Barry, not wanting to believe that the only way to stop this threat was to give up one of their own. As Smith drove off, Barry looked at the other three sadly.

“I need a few minutes to think.” He muttered before speeding away, leaving the others to their thoughts as they want back inside to inform the others of what was going on. As they went back, Barry raced around Central City, taking in the sights of his town. He knew this wasn’t up for discussion, no matter what the others thought. One life to save potentially billions? He was giving himself up. He raced past Jitters and past CCPD, recalling all the good and bad times he’d had, he thought he saw the outline of Julian in the CSI lab, and regretted the fact he hadn’t done more to make amends with him before he was forced to resign. Barry raced back to the hangar to find the rest of the team were starting to gather.

“What’s going on?” Kara asked, seeing Barry appear and the rest of the group who went to meet the President looking devastated.

“We met with a government agent, who told us why the Dominators are apparently here.” Ray stated.

“Apparently, the Dominators have agreed a deal with him and will leave us in peace.” Sara spat.

“So, what’s the problem?” Kara asked, seeing some of the people look saddened and the rest looking happy at the news that the Dominators would soon be a thing of the past.

“They want something.” Oliver ground out, looking furious.

“Me. They want me.” Barry said, looking down at his feet, those who didn’t know looking shocked at the news.

At the thought that the Dominators wanted Barry, and knowing exactly what the Dominators would do to Barry if they had him, Kara felt as if the world had been pulled out from under her. This couldn’t be right, the government wouldn’t agree to hand over one of their people to these invaders, would they? Barry wouldn’t, couldn’t go! He was the Flash! He was Barry, dorky, caring, adorable Barry Allen. 

“This isn't up for debate. It's not even a close call. Turn myself over to the Dominators, they leave the rest of the world alone. Simple.” Barry stated, as if daring anyone to question his logic.

“No, it's not simple.” Felicity ground out, she was not letting one of her best friends do this stupid, idiotic thing.

“Barry, it doesn't matter what you've done. You can't do this.” Diggle stated, Barry may have hurt him, but that wasn’t important. Barry was a friend, and friends don’t have to sacrifice themselves for each other.

“It's been a honour to know all of you. To fight alongside of you. Now it's up to you to keep our home safe. At least the article won’t have to come to pass now.” Barry spoke, muttering the last part, forgetting Kara would catch it.

“What article?” Kara asked, looking at Barry who sighed.

“There was an article, Barry showed me it at S.T.A.R Labs before you all attacked it, it came with Thawne from the future, it was dated April 2024.” Oliver said.

“What did it say?” Ray asked, wondering what could be so important about an article.

“Flash vanishes in crisis, in a battle with the Reverse Flash, both disappeared in a bright light, presumably never seen again.” Barry glumly noted, as those who weren’t aware looked in shock. “At least it won’t happen now when I’m gone.” He stated as he turned to face the exit.

“Barry! I'm not letting you leave.” Oliver shouted as the others came to terms with the fact there were articles from the future.

“No offense, Oliver, but you and what army?” Barry scoffed, turning back to look at his old friends one last time.

“This one.” Kara frowned, as Barry looked at all of them. Barry was not getting away that easily and he sure as hell wasn’t sacrificing himself to be the hero. This was not his fault, despite what anyone said, she refused to believe that.

“Listen, Red. I don't like you. But when you got a crew, you gonna take a hit for the rest.” Mick stated, imparting his wise wisdom upon the team.

“That was actually pretty inspiring. I mean, up until the point that Mick compared us to a bunch of criminals, but...” Barry laughed a little as some of the tension drained. These guys didn’t get it, he had to atone for his mistakes, but despite it all, they still loved him and he still loved them, didn’t they see though that was why he was doing this? He was sacrificing himself FOR THEM! Because he loved them!

“According to the Dominators, we might as well be.” Amaya stated.

“And maybe they're right. Maybe we do more harm than good, but this is our chance to find out.” Nate said.

“We're not letting you sacrifice yourself. There's no way. I don't care if that's what it means to be a hero. You're not a hero to me... you're my friend.” Cisco said, glaring at Barry as if to dare him to contradict him.

“Yo! Guys! You know that ship that landed in Central City?” Jax asked everyone.

“It’s opening up.” Sara affirmed as Barry and Oliver locked eyes with one another.

“Here we go.” Oliver grimly stated as the team got ready to go again.


	9. Invasion! (Legends) Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Heroes go against the Dominators, with the fate of the Earth at stake.

As everyone scrambled to get ready to go to work, Felicity rushed to her computer to the sounding of beeps, stating that Dominator ships were opening worldwide, and that something large had just dropped from the Dominators mothership.

“It’s the Meta bomb.” Barry said, looking in horror at the unfolding scene before him.

“Why would the uglies drop ships on us if they’re just planning on blowing us up?” Felicity asked.

“Because the ships were a distraction….to keep us from stopping the Meta bomb!” Oliver cried out, piecing the bits together.

As Cisco and Sara raced in the Wave Rider to catch the bomb with the tractor beam, Stein approached the ground team with the finished device to take out the Dominators.

“This might help, I’ve mass produced a device that when placed on individual Dominators will cause indescribable agony…not the nicest invention, but…this is war.” Stein trailed off, knowing how bad this could be but knowing there was no other option.

“We’re going to have to do it fast.” Oliver stated, as Stein mentioned how if they set it off too early, the Dominators would know what was happening.

“Only way I know how.” Barry smirked at his old friend, getting back into the spirit of things once again. These Dominators had come here and harmed his home, harmed his friends, and for that alone, they were going down if Barry Allen had anything to do with it.

As Cisco and Sara chased after the bomb, Barry and Oliver ran to the city to meet up with the rest of the team, who were already amassing to take on the disembarking Dominators.  
“We ready for this guys?” Oliver asked as everyone around him nodded, it was too late now to not be ready, this was it, the fate of the planet rested on them taking the Dominators down.

As the Dominators approached the team, they lined up in an attack formation, facing the Dominators, who snarled at the sight of them. As one, the heroes and the Dominators charged at one another. As Kara flew overhead, charging up some heat vision to give to the Dominators, she looked down and saw a streak of orange as Barry raced into the oncoming horde, delivering punches to the sides of their foes as he attached Stein’s small weapons to them as he went. Barry raced in between Dominators, seeing their snarling faces up close as he ran, attaching devices to their necks and arms, he sped around them, punching them and blasting some of them with his speed lightning, making sure they felt the pain that they brought to his friends.

Kara blasted more of them from the sky as she flew around Ray and Firestorm, both delivering blasts of dwarf star and fire down upon the Dominators, she saw Citizen Steel blocking a Dominators attack before being knocked back, as Spartan unloaded as many bullets as he could into them, Oliver, with his bow drawn back, firing arrow after arrow at the oncoming invaders, felling several. Mick and Amaya, one roasting them, the other tossing them aside with kicks and punches, despite all of this, the Dominators were tough, and had the numerical advantage, this would be no easy fight.

“Die, you freaks!” Mick yelled as he fought back to back with Oliver, Dominators closing in on them, before Kara sent them flying with her heat vision, Oliver and Mick looked up as she flew overhead, before re-joining the fray once more. Spartan went against one of the Dominators hand to hand before it flipped him to the ground, as it went in for the kill, it was blasted aside and lifted into the air by the ATOM as Ray took it away from the fighting and let go, Kara catching him saying “See ya later, Dominator.” As it fell before Ray rejoined the fight himself, despite all of this, she had to smile to herself, a pun in a situation like this was impressive.

As Barry raced between more and more Dominators, ensuring he seeded each and every one of them, out of the corner of his eye he saw Oliver shoot a Dominator with a couple of arrows, before it pulled them and out and swiped at him, knocking Oliver flying over the wall, before Barry could even begin to react he saw Kara zoom away and knew Oliver would be safe, she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her new friend if she could help it. As Oliver fell from the roof, he knew he was likely out of luck, no grappling arrows to hand, he prepared for the fall when suddenly he felt a jerking behind his back and he was lifted high into the air before being deposited gently back on the battleground, turning to his saviour, he stared at Kara for a few moments, quietly conferring his gratitude, before they nodded to one another, comrades in arms once again, the tension of their earlier argument draining away in the heat of battle, Oliver notched and fired off another arrow at one of the approaching Dominators, with Kara getting ready to fly overhead once more and rain heat vision down from above, suddenly over the comms they heard Felicity’s voice calling in.

“Good work planting Professor Stein’s nano weapons, although we’ve still got Dominators all over the country. This looks like a job for Supergirl.” She called out as Kara raced off Eastwards to begin planting the weapons on every Dominator in the country, Barry saw this and raced off West himself with them too, also going to help take them down. 

“Thanks Felicity, not in the least bit insulted.” Barry jabbed at Felicity, hearing her sheepishly apologise and state she meant Supergirl and the Flash.

As Barry and Kara finished planting the devices, they raced back towards Central City, as they heard Oliver over the comms telling Felicity to activate the devices, the Dominators nationwide falling to their knees in pain as the shock ripped through their bodies. As Kara and Barry arrived back, they saw Firestorm transmute the Meta bomb and watched as water fell harmlessly down to Central City, rushing towards the rooftop, they heard the cries as Dominators fled back to their ships and watched as the ships began to take off.

“They’re retreating!” Nate cried out as Felicity watched over them all from the base.

“It’s not just them, it’s all around the world.” She stated as the ships rose into the air and left. They had done it. They’d won. The Dominators were in full retreat. It was finally over.

“You did it.” Oliver said to Barry and Kara as they all watched the Dominators flee together.

“No, Oliver.” Kara stated, wondering why he was minimising his own involvement.

“We all did it.” Barry smiled as the rest of the team landed, just taking this moment to bask in their victory, the world was safe once more, and it was because of them. The heroes.


	10. Invasion! (Legends) Part IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Dominators flee, Kara and Barry have a heart to heart.

As the team returned to base, keeping an eye out in case any of the Dominators returned or had stayed behind, they got a phone call, telling them that the President wanted to reward all of them back at their base that evening, with a full military official presence. Graciously accepting, the heroes prepared for the arrival of the Commander In Chief.

“What’s your new President like then?” Kara asked Barry as they stood off to one side, everyone else preparing for the evening or calming down from the adrenaline of defeating alien invaders. 

“She seems nice, as the previous VP though I’ve not studied her too much.” Barry admitted, hoping that however she was, she wouldn’t threaten any of his friends. They had bled for this world, the last thing they needed was for a politician to start blaming them for the troubles. 

After the President arrived and the stage was set up for the presentation, the heroes lined up on the stage as the President herself took to the podium and began addressing the assembled audience.

“Many responsibilities have fallen to me since the President's passing at the beginning of this crisis. Sobering, sad responsibilities. This is not one of them. Today, it is my distinct honour to bestow upon you a small acknowledgement of the great debt that the world owes to you all.” She smiled out as the heroes stood to attention behind her, drinking in the fact that they had won, that the world was safe.

“Is it just me, or is she really hot?” Mick asked Sara as they stood in line, Kara catching their conversation.

“Although your brave efforts must remain a secret…”

“She's hot.” Sara nodded back to Mick as Kara smirked at their interaction.

“…know that metahuman or not, masked or not, each and every one of you is a hero.” The President finished, smiling out at everyone as the audience rose and clapped, clapping for their own efforts and the brave fight the heroes had put up, to turn the enemy around and chase them away. Kara smiled to herself as she saw this, it was nice to get recognition for your work, even though she didn’t really need it. Just the thanks of her new friends would be enough for her any day.

As the President and her advisors left to return to Washington to discuss what next, the heroes got out of their suits and washed up, ready for the real after party with just each other, drinking, dancing and relaxing. They had earned it, after all.

As the groups began to split, Barry and Oliver walked off with champagne glasses in hand, Kara, after getting a top up from Felicity, walked over to join the two men.

“It’s like looking into a mirror.” Felicity stated, commenting on how she looked like Kara did when she was in her alter ego disguise.

“You know what’s funny? She really kinda looks like my cousin.” Ray remarked, shrugging off the multiverse shattering truth.

Kara raced over to Barry and Oliver, calling out to them as they turned around to face her.

“Hey, guys. Either of you ever save the world before?” She looked between the two of them.

“Mm-hmm.” Barry grinned at her.

“Last year.” Oliver stated.

“Oh, it never gets old, does it?” Kara sighed, happy to think of all the good they had all done for the world.

“Nope. It sure beats screwing up the world.” Barry stated, looking annoyed with himself still.

“Hey. You are too hard on yourself.” Kara chided. She thought Barry had gotten over the idea of blaming himself for every little thing.

“That's what people usually tell me.” Oliver remarked.

“And for good reason, I'm sure. But, back on my Earth, it's just me and my cousin. Between the two of us, we're more powerful than-“ Kara trailed off as Barry interjected.

“-Than everybody in this room combined.” Barry remarked with a grin, watching Kara blush at the idea.

“No, no, that's the point. That's what you've all proven here. Metahuman or not, superpowers or not... you are Earth's mightiest heroes.” She finished as Oliver looked sheepishly at her, apologising for his earlier behaviour towards her. 

“The truth is, that this Earth could probably use a Supergirl.” Oliver admitted as Kara looked at Barry and Oliver as she pointed to herself.

“That’s funny because I was just thinking my Earth could use an Oliver Queen.” The three of them grinned at one another, good friends united. 

“I know you said, you don’t get…unnerved. But if you did, I think, hardship is what makes us stronger. It’s probably why these people look to you as their rock.” Kara wisely stated as Oliver absorbed her words.

“You guys feeling a group hug?” Barry coyly suggested as Oliver shook his head and Kara called him into one, the three of the friends embracing each other. 

“Hey Kara, I made you something.” Cisco smiled at her as he approached the group.

Breaking off the hug, Kara turned to him with a smile on her face still.

“What? Cisco! What err, what is it?” She asked, pulling the small device out from the box he presented to her.

“Oh its err, it’s an interdimensional extrapolator” He explained.

“Ohh.” She stated, having an inkling on where he was going with this.

“It creates small breaches so you can use it to cross over to our universe anytime you need too.”

“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” Kara laughed, before realising exactly what this meant.

‘I can see Barry at any time I want.’

“I also included communication functionality so if you ever need any help, you can always contact the team.” Cisco said, not realising Kara was wrapped up in her own thoughts.

“Hey Skirt.” Mick stated, drawing Kara out of her mind as she and Cisco looked at him. “Call me.” He sauntered off, not noticing the look of disbelief Kara gave him. He had guts, she’d give him that.

As the team continued to mingle and the night wore on, Nate walked over as he saw three men enter the hangar, before the rest of the team noticed them, he approached Agent Smith and his companions.

“Something tells me you weren’t invited.” Nate stated.

“Doctor Haywood!” Smith jovially replied as if he wasn’t gatecrashing.

“Don’t Doctor Haywood me, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I like parties. And I’m here for the mop up.” He replied, looking over Nate’s shoulder at the rest of the team as Kara walked over towards them.

“Agent Smith!” Kara cheerfully called out as the man turned to look at her. “It’s so funny, seeing you here. I was just having the loveliest chat to your President about you, I was just telling her on my Earth we have the department of extra normal operations which deals specifically with aliens. She thought it was an excellent idea. She also loved my pitch about reassigning you to Antarctica.” Kara finished with a smug smile at the man as he shot her a look of loathing as well. Kara didn’t care though, this man had threatened her friends, and especially Barry and she would not forgive or forget it.

She walked off as Nate bade him farewell, the man leaving in a huff, she walked over to Barry and grabbed him by the arm.

“Come with me, I want to speak to you in private.” She motioned, Oliver, who was talking to Barry, taking the hint and striking up a conversation with Nate, she pulled Barry outside into the cool, cold air.

“Bit cold out here.” Barry remarked with a blush as he drunk in Kara’s appearance. The battle was won and soon she would return to her Earth, but was it wrong of him to wish she’d stay here with him?

“Yeah, but I know something that could warm it up.” Kara smirked at him and with a wink, she approached him.

“What do you mean?” Barry nervously laughed, unsure if she still liked him as he liked her, yet hoping she did.

“Well, last time you started it, so I guess it’s my turn.” Kara grinned before throwing her arms around Barry’s neck and pulling him into the kiss. For the moment, nothing existed except the two of them, her hands around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist, pulling her even closer, their lips pressed against one another, he felt something wet against his bottom lip and opened his mouth to let her tongue inside his mouth, feeling his tongue meet with hers, they continued this for several minutes until they broke apart.  
“Wow.” Barry said in a daze as he saw the same glazed look in Kara’s eyes. “Now I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“This isn’t goodbye, Barry Allen.” Kara reminded him with a grin. “I definitely want to try that again soon. This is farewell, for now.” 

The two walked into the hangar once again to meet Sara, Oliver and Diggle waiting.

“Ready to see if Cisco’s gadget works?” Barry asked her.

“Ready. And remember, if you guys ever need me, I’m just a call away.” Kara replied.

“Same here.” Oliver nodded to her, they’d only known each other a day, but they all knew they’d risk their lives for one another, they already had done before.  
Kara pressed the button on the extrapolator and watched as the breach opened, with a sigh and one last loving gaze at Barry, which to her joy was returned, Kara walked through the breach and it closed behind her, taking her back to Earth-38. 

Barry and Diggle walked off as Sara and Oliver spoke to each other for a few moments, before joining them at the hangar entrance, Sara rubbing her hand against Diggle’s shoulder as she left, heading back to the Wave Rider and the next big adventure with the rest of the Legends. Diggle and Oliver spoke about how normal was kind of gone, as Barry laughed, he knew that only too well.

“I may never understand you, man, but you’re one of the best men I know.” Diggle stated, offering Barry his hand to shake before heading off himself, Star City was a long way to go, he would be best catching some sleep before the plane ride back tomorrow.

“Thanks Dig, so, you forgive me for what I did?” Barry asked, still hitting himself over all the things he messed up with Flashpoint.

“Barry, as I keep telling this guy, you have to forgive yourself. Good luck.” Dig smiled as he left, leaving Barry and Oliver alone together.

“We have to do this more often, get together, I mean.” Barry laughed.

“I don’t know if the world could take it.” Oliver stated.

“I meant without the world being threatened.” Barry said.

“So if the world isn’t been threatened, what would we do?” Oliver asked, shrugging his shoulders before they both grinned at one another.

“I know a good bar downtown?” Barry suggested.

“I’ve got a bit of money.” Oliver grinned as they headed off to go drink together, talking about the fights they’ve had together and against one another.

“I’m just saying.” Oliver started as they drank from the first of what would hopefully be many drinks that night “Next time I’m gonna getcha.”

“I’m just saying I beat you twice.” Barry muttered into his bottle.

“The first time was a tie.” Oliver remarked.

“And the second time?”

“There were no witnesses the second time.” Oliver shrugged as Barry grinned.

“Super speed arrow duels.” Barry murmured to him “Our lives aren’t exactly normal.”

“I told Kara.” Oliver stated, suddenly hit by the idea to tell Barry what he had said to the Girl of Steel, it wasn’t like Oliver was blind, he knew they’d gone outside and kissed. “I was looking to reclaim some normal, thinking on it now, I’m not so sure.”

“I know what you mean.” Barry stated “We both got a look at what life would be normal.”

“It would have been happy.” Oliver said, with a sadness in his eyes.

“But not full.” Barry murmured.

“No, nowhere close.” Oliver shook his head.

“To things not been normal.” Barry proposed a toast.

“To life being full.” Oliver added as they clinked their bottles together.

As the two took a drink and put their bottles down.

“So, how long have you and Kara liked each other?” Oliver remarked as Barry shook his head.

“Oliver!” He laughed as the two men took another drink together.


	11. Savitar and Cadmus I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Barry goes against Savitar, he needs help from an old friend as he learns a shocking truth, and on Earth-38, how long as Kara been gone for and what will Cadmus do next?

As Kara stepped through the breach, she found herself once more in her apartment. However, this wasn’t how she’d left her apartment. There were things thrown across the floor, tables overturned, and clothes in a mess. She frowned at the state of it and used her X-Ray vision to look around for intruders, seeing that the apartment was clear, she sped over and cleaned up the mess in a matter of minutes.

‘I’ll go to the DEO and see if everyone is there.’ Kara thought to herself before changing back into her Supergirl outfit and taking to the skies, zipping through the air of National City, from above, everything looked the same, people went about their day, the world hadn’t ended, and Kara flew to the DEO offices, landing in the main foyer. 

As she entered the DEO, some of the milling around agents looked at her and stared open mouthed at the sight of her, seeing this, Kara frowned as she hurried to find J’onn and Alex, had something happened she was needed for?

As Kara reached J’onn’s office she heard a variety of different, familiar voices, she pushed open the door, as they all turned to look at the intruder, before their mouths fell open in shock. Looking around, Kara could see J’onn, Alex, Winn, Mon-El, Eliza and Kal all gathered around a table.

“Hey everyone! I’m back!” Kara smiled, as they continued to stare at her in shock. “What’s going on?”

“Kara!” Alex was the first to reach her sister and wrap her in a hug, followed by Eliza and Winn, before J’onn, Mon-El and Kal hugged her as well.

“Where were you Kara?” Kal asked, looking at his cousin in shock.

“You would not believe the weekend I’ve had.” Kara laughed.

“Weekend?” Winn questioned, confused.

“Kara…it’s been two months.” J’onn gently stated. “What happened to you?”

“Two months?!” Kara asked. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I got to your apartment to find you were gone, we overturned the place and since then we’ve spent the past two months looking for you, where were you?” Alex demanded, relieved her sister was home but angry she vanished.

“Winn, you remember Barry from last year, right?”

“The Flash from another universe, so cool by the way, what about him?” Winn asked, as Mon-El and Eliza looked shocked that there were other universes.

“Well he appeared in my apartment, all those space-time portals at Thanksgiving were him trying to find this Earth. He needed a favour and I owed him one from Livewire and Banshee, so I went to his Earth to help stop an alien invasion.” Kara smiled as the rest looked at her in shock. An alien invasion?!

“Aliens? What type?” J’onn asked, wondering what exactly his agent had been up against.

“The Dominators.” Kara stated, Kal and Mon-El’s eyes widening in shock.

“You fought the Dominators? What happened?” Mon-El asked.

“Who are the Dominators?” Eliza asked.

“They came to Krypton and Daxom years ago, before any of us were born, they captured a lot of people, did experiments on them, killed a lot more.” Kara explained to the shock of those who didn’t know the history of them fully. “They’re a species who pride themselves on collecting knowledge. They attacked Barry’s Earth in 1951 but came back as they thought Metahumans were a threat to the future, so we had to stop them, it’s a long story, but future Barry from 2056 sent a message saying Barry had changed the timeline so wasn’t trustworthy, so I had to lead the rest of the team to rescue their President, we got whammied and all spent about two hours trying to kill Barry and his friend Oliver, we were careless and were mind controlled for it.” Kara admitted as Kal and Mon-El looked shocked still that she had fought the Dominators, everyone else looking worried that she said she had been controlled.

“Are you sure you’re ok Kara?” Eliza asked her, worried her daughter wouldn’t be up for fighting again so soon.

“Yeah, I mean, we can handle it if not.” Winn stated.

“Guys, I’m fine, Barry managed to make me angry and I accidentally destroyed the machine that was controlling us, freeing everyone up, Oliver and some of the others got captured so I had to help Barry and Oliver’s protégés steal something from a thief to help track them so we could get them back, then some of them went back in time to go capture a Dominator in 1951 to learn their intentions, then as they arrived back the Dominators said they’d leave if Barry handed himself to them, we all talked him out of it before we had the final battle, defeated the Dominators, stopped their WMD, they fled, and we got honoured by their President before we had a small victory party. Then I came back here with a device that lets me call or go to their universe whenever I want. I guess time flows differently through the universes, you say it was two months, it was less than two days for me.” Kara finished as everyone tried to digest what had happened.

“Wait, they have time travel there?!” Alex asked.

“Yeah, they have a time travelling ship and Barry can run fast enough to travel in time as well as breach dimensions.” Kara bashfully stated as everyone looked even more surprised at just how powerful Barry was.

“That’s quite an adventure you had.” Winn stated finally as everyone else was coming to terms with what happened. “Barry changed the timeline you say?”

“Yeah he saved his mother from dying, realised how it impacted the future and went back to fix it.” Kara sighed, sad that her friend had to go through the pain of losing Nora Allen all over again.

“Well at least he tried to fix it.” J’onn supplied.

“I was going to stay and help Barry with this new threat he’s facing, but I knew I had to finish Cadmus and Hank Henshaw, and Barry would call me if he needed me.” Kara supplied.

“What’s he facing?” Kal asked, not liking the idea of his cousin dimension hopping on a whim.

“A thing named Savitar. Barry is probably slightly faster than we are, Kal, and this Savitar apparently is many times faster than Barry.”

“How would you help then?” Alex demanded, not wanting Kara to go fight in other universes either.

“He’s apparently made of metal, heat vision should melt him and freeze breath should slow him.” She smiled. 

“Made of metal? Awesome, I mean, awful.” Winn said as Kal glared at him.

“Don’t worry Winn, I won’t be fighting him unless Barry asks, but as he styles himself the God of Speed, I’d like to prove he isn’t a God.” Kara said with a laugh.

“Is that all you did?” Eliza asked faintly, sensing Kara was holding something back but not wanting to hear more about any danger she was in.

“Erm….yes?” Kara asked with a blush on her face, a blush that none of them missed.

“What’s his name?” Kal threatened, cracking his knuckles together.

“Clark! It’s Barry! I’ll introduce you one day, ok?” Kara reasoned. “He and I first kissed when he kissed me before he left this Earth, I could tell he liked me still and I like him, so before I left, we went outside alone and I kissed him this time.”

Mon-El suddenly seemed annoyed and excused himself as some of the others looked shocked.

“I thought you were with James?” Alex asked her.

“I’m not sure, we’ve not been close lately, and I’ve liked Barry for a long time now. We’re not together either, it probably won’t even happen again, it was just a kiss.” Kara began to go off on a rant, showing how embarrassed and confused she was.

“Sure.” Winn laughed, sensing that this was going to last for a while.

“Wait, did I miss Christmas?” Kara pouted.

“Afraid so.” Eliza laughed. “Alex has your presents, don’t worry.”

As the others continued to fill Kara in on what she had missed, Mon-El returned, apologising for leaving, shrugging it off despite his bitter tone, Kara found out that whilst she had been gone Hank, or Cyborg Superman, had gone around destroying buildings, causing millions in damage, but always disappearing before J’onn or Kal could get there to stop him.

“Next time he shows up, we’ll all go.” Kara reasoned, hoping they could get there next time and stop him.

“Hopefully we’ll be quick enough to stop him.” J’onn said before the alarm suddenly blared around the DEO.

“Cyborg Superman spotted entering LCorp.” Winn said as he checked the alert, Kara and Kal rushing off to go stop him.

 

As Barry raced through Central City, it was a gloriously sunny day, despite it nearly being Christmas. He’d found out Julian was aware of Savitar, yet he claimed to know nothing, Barry knew he had to be lying though, or not telling the whole truth at any rate. Barry knew there was one man who knew more about the Speed Force than anyone else he knew, if anyone knew about Savitar, it’d probably be Jay Garrick. Rushing back to STAR labs he asked Cisco to vibe a breach to Earth 3 so he could call on Jay to get his help, rushing through the portal Cisco created for him, he found Jay in battle with the Trickster, quickly helping to deal with him, he turned to Jay.

“I’ve something I need to talk to you about, a speedster, calls himself Savitar.” Barry said, gulping when he saw the look of shock on Jay’s face.

‘Guess he knows him then.’ 

“Let’s get back to your Earth then and talk, Flash.” Jay said, as the two of them ran together to open the breach to Earth-1. Jumping through the breach, they landed inside STAR labs once again.

“So, Savitar, apparently you’ve grown powerful enough to challenge him.” Jay stated.

“Yeah I know, what I don’t know is where he came from, why he sees me as a threat and how I can stop him.” Barry frowned, hoping Jay would have the answers he desperately needed.

“I don’t know who he is, I’ve never seen him, you’re the first speedster I know who has, all I know is all the stories say the same, Savitar was the first man ever granted speed. Over time, he became the God of Motion, the fastest of us all. Before he comes to an Earth, he sends a lackey to prepare the world for him.” Jay said.

“Alchemy.” Barry grimly noted as Jay nodded.

“He’s preparing for a battle, with you.” Jay pointed out.

“Why me?” Barry asked, still not sure as to why Savitar believes him such a threat.

“You’re threatening his power, Barry, you’re getting faster and faster and it’s not something Savitar will tolerate. He’ll want to end you before you can get even faster than he is.”

“Can I really get that much faster?” Barry asked.

“Theoretically, you could probably one day, with enough motivation and practise, reach speeds nearing light speed.” Jay stated to Barry’s shock.

“I’ll be ready when he comes again for me then.” Barry stated, determined to take Savitar down.

“We’ll be ready.” Jay affirmed, Barry looking over at him with confusion. “I’m not letting you face this alone, I’ll help you take Savitar and Alchemy down.”

Barry and Jay got to work checking every single text they could for any mention of the name Savitar and hopefully, a way they could take him down.

“This is hopeless, I’ve checked every book, not a reference to Savitar in any of them.” Barry grumbled.

“Patience, Barry, I find that everything reveals itself in time.” Jay stated, as he picked up a book to have another look himself, they’d find some way to stop Savitar, he knew they would.

As the day wore on, the two speedsters agreed to take up the challenge the next day and Barry headed home for a well-deserved rest. As he walked through the front door, he saw Iris wrapping presents, smiling he walked past her and sat on the sofa, her soon following.

“I shopped and I shopped and now I’m ready to drop, into your arms.” Iris smirked as she dropped down next to Barry and moved towards him, planting her lips on his. After a moment’s hesitation where a feeling of unease passed through him, Barry returned the kiss himself. (Well I’m not going to have him chase her off with a pitchfork and declare undying love for Kara, to paraphrase Bane “Now is not the time, that comes later”)

As Barry felt himself begin to melt into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Iris, the world just felt right for once. No threats, no enemies, just two people, nearly Christmas, content in one another’s embrace. Why then, did he still have a niggling feeling that this wasn’t right?

“By the way after you told me about Julian’s archaeological dig I did some of my own. Turns out four years ago there was a dig in India, something bad happened to it and the only survivor of the team was Julian.” Iris stated.

“So it looks like Julian is a liar then.” Barry grimly stated as he sped out of the door towards STAR labs. It seemed like it was time for Jay and him to pay Julian a little visit. He raced through the streets and arrived at the lab to find everyone else already there, Barry explaining how he believed Julian has the philosopher’s stone and is connected to Alchemy, before an alert signalled Alchemy was on the move. Flashing over, they found Alchemy and his acolytes trying to restore the powers of the Flashpoint Metahumans.

“It’s over Alchemy!” Barry called as the acolytes scattered before Savitar himself appeared, bearing down on Barry. Barry looked up at the monstrosity in horror.

“Please tell me you see him!” He called out to Jay, who wore a matching expression of utmost horror and shock.

“Oh I see him.” Jay muttered. 

“We have to take him, together.”

“No! I’ll cover Savitar, you just get that stone!” Jay cried before charging at Savitar, the God of Speed grabbing him by the neck in one fluid movement before speeding off to deliver to Jay the beating he gave Barry a few weeks previous. Barry raced up the building as Alchemy prepared to attack, charging up an electric bolt which fried Alchemy, sending him sprawling to the ground.

As Alchemy made to rise again, Barry punched him with a lightning fast fist, knocking him out, seeing the philosopher’s stone on the ground, Barry picked it up and placed it within the box that Alchemy was carrying, before bending down to unmask Alchemy, pulling off the mask, Barry looked down into the face of Julian Albert.

“Julian…” he trailed off before picking up his former co-worker and racing back to S.T.A.R labs to place him in the pipeline. As he got back he found Jay waiting for him, who told him that Savitar was about to kill him, before he suddenly flashed away.

Barry waited in the pipeline until Julian awoke, and asked him what he was doing as Alchemy, before Julian accused the Flash of setting him up and demanding his phone call, claiming he had no recollection of his time spent as Alchemy, giving him up as a lost cause for now, Barry walked off to check up on Jay, it was his fault if Jay got injured.  
Jay it turned out was beaten up but fine, sharing some banter with Barry as he called Barry his sidekick and Barry calling him a senior citizen, Barry told him to rest up as he went to see how the others were doing with the idea of Savitar being trapped within the stone.

‘I bet Winn could crack this if he was here, I wonder if he and Kara are fighting alien threats back on Earth-38?’ Barry wondered as he walked through the halls of S.T.A.R labs, it had only been a week, but he missed Kara so much. He knew about the time running differently, and wondered how long it would have been for her back home, did she sort everything out with James and go back to being happy with him? Barry found the idea of Kara being happy with someone else as saddening, just as he found the idea of kissing Iris somewhat uneasy.

Barry asked what they knew about Julian’s ideas and the box that kept the stone, Cisco stating that Julian truly believed what he was saying, that he had no idea about any of this, and that the box registered as not existing on every test they ran it through, it was as if it wasn’t made of matter at all. Barry walked into Joe who spoke about how Wally seemed to be letting his speed take control of his brain, giving Barry an idea as to why Julian believes he isn’t Alchemy.

Barry went back to the pipeline to examine Julian and question him further about the box, asking if he experienced any times where he blacked out, before Julian remarked that as a man wearing a mask, he had no right to assume others were hiding anything. Accepting this, Barry revealed himself to Julian.

“I should have known. I should have guessed it. The unexplained absences, your passion for metas, your general thumbing your nose at authority. I bet you had a good laugh behind my back.” Julian accused Barry, throwing him glares for locking him up, the hypocritical Metahuman. 

“I wish I could have told you before.” Barry sighed.

“Why would you? We’ve never liked each other.” Julian sneered.

“Because of Flashpoint. You’ve been giving powers to those who had them in Flashpoint, which was an alternate reality I accidentally created. When I fixed it you were there, working at CCPD and apparently my rival. Before Flashpoint, I’d never met you before. So when I got to work and found you there, I was shocked, even more shocked to find you disliked me and the feeling was supposedly mutual. I’m sorry Julian.” Barry averted his eyes as Julian looked at him in shock. 

‘Allen thinks we’ve known each other for such a short time? Mental Meta.’ He sneered inside his head.

“Why tell me now that you’re the Flash?” Julian queried, wondering why Allen would give up his big secret like this.

“Because I need you to trust me, Julian. You ARE Alchemy. I just don’t think you’re aware of it, now, have you been blacking out?”

"...Yes.” Julian admitted, realising that maybe Allen was onto something, if he was Alchemy, it would certainly explain the lapses in his memory he’d been suffering for a while now.

Julian admitted to Barry that he lost his sister and he found the stone due to a vision of her appearing, telling him where it was and how he could resurrect her using its powers.  
Barry felt his heart breaking at the sorrow in Julian’s words, what he had done was exactly what Barry tried to do with Flashpoint, he certainly couldn’t hold it against Julian for hoping against hope that this stone could fix his problems and bring back his loved ones.

Barry tried to tell Julian that he was Alchemy, and to try and work him through the issue of it, as Julian panicked, believing yet not wanting to believe that he was Alchemy, this monster who was terrorising the people of Central City. Alchemy stood for everything Julian opposed, namely, Metas. Barry was startled by a sudden noise as he spoke with Julian, trying to find out more about Savitar.

“Guys, what’s going on?” He asked into the comms.

“Cisco’s workshop! Barry he opened the box!” Caitlin cried as Barry sped off, something had made Cisco release Savitar and now he had to stop him, somehow.

“Cisco?” Barry asked, seeing Savitar stood behind him and Cisco, entranced by the light of the philosopher’s stone.

“Bow to your God.” Savitar groaned as he charged forward, grabbing Barry and slamming him around S.T.A.R labs. As Savitar threw Barry around the pipeline like a rag doll, suddenly Wally appeared before them.

“Hey, metal mouth!” Wally called, getting Savitar to turn his attention to him as Barry struggled to his feet.

Wally charged forward at Savitar, only to be grabbed himself and thrown at Barry, sending both the Flash and Kid Flash to the ground in a heap. As they struggled to get back up, Savitar began to approach them, grinding his metallic arms against the circular walls, savouring the fear in their eyes as he approached, ready to eliminate two threats to his rule. Suddenly, with a flash, Savitar vanished, seeing this, Barry and Wally both fell backwards, exhausted. For now, the threat was over. Savitar had been contained once more.  
Barry and the others gathered as Cisco explained his plan to link the stone to Julian and allow them to communicate with Savitar directly through Julian, as it appeared there was no Alchemy, and that it was always Savitar, possessing Julian and using him as a mouthpiece. As they hooked Julian up, and he quickly fell asleep, they were startled by a sudden yell from Julian, before Julian awoke and fixed Barry with a look. Barry knew that look. This wasn’t Julian.

“Hello Barry. It’s been a while.” Savitar spoke to him.

As Kara and Kal approached LCorp, they saw the unconscious security guards and the smashed up windows. 

“Can you see him?” Kara asked, using her X-Ray vision to try and spot him but failing.

“Nothing, he could be cloaked or already gone.’ Kal admitted.

“Should we check then?” Kara asked.

“Supergirl!” A voice behind them called.

They turned around to see Lena Luthor approaching them.

“Luthor.” Kal spat. Kara frowned at his actions and smiled as she approached.

“Miss Luthor, are you alright?”

“I am now. That guy who attacked you a few months ago was here, and he was trying to find something, he destroyed part of my building when he couldn’t find it but he ran before he could really hurt anyone. Am I glad to see you though, where have you been the past few months? National City has really needed you around.” Lena frowned, crime rates had shot up when criminals realised Supergirl, wherever she was, wasn’t answering the call for justice.

With Lillian Luthor released from prison when the evidence against her was circumstantial at best, Cadmus had soon started its propaganda machine once more, saying how Supergirl had disappeared as she was evil, and Lena knew that her mother wouldn’t be seeking her help ever again, if anything, she’d call Lena a traitor to her race and call on Cadmus to remove her.

“I’m sorry I was gone Miss Luthor, a friend needed help and I had to go, I didn’t plan to be gone so long.” Kara frowned. She hated the idea of failing her city in any way. 

“So he’s gone.” Kal muttered before he flew off, heading back to the DEO.

“I’ll see you around Miss Luthor.” Kara smiled at Lena before she headed off herself. She and Lena had parted on less than perfect terms, but it had been two months for Lena, Lena had moved on and so could Kara.

Kara and Kal returned to the DEO where J’onn was waiting for them.

“So Hank Henshaw escaped, huh? When we find him, we’ll stop him.” J’onn stated. Hank had ruined too many people’s lives, and what little good was in him had been stripped away when Cadmus got their hands on him. He was nothing but evil now and a threat to those J’onn loved and cared for.

“I have an idea, I can call on a friend who might be able to help.” Kal stated.

“Who is it?” Kara asked.

“You’ll see, I think you’ll like him.” Kal admitted with a smile and a quick goodbye before he flew off. 

“So, I guess I best head back to work.” Kara said before J’onn fixed her with a look. 

“If you head back to work now, after months of being missing, at the same time the missing Supergirl appears, you may as well admit on live television who you are. Spend the next few weeks as Supergirl, get people used to seeing you again, and then let Kara Danvers return from a sabbatical, hopefully people will think you can’t possibly be Supergirl and let it go.” J’onn stated.

Kara accepted this, no matter how much she wanted to, as Oliver had said to her, reclaim some normalcy, and with a sigh she headed off to go and find Alex, to see if her sister needed any help around the DEO whilst she was stuck in her Kryptonian character for now. On her way out she saw Mon-El, working in the lab with Winn, a frown etched onto his face.

“What’s the matter Mon-El?” She called and he looked at her, the frown getting stronger before disappearing instantly.

“Nothing Kara, what brings you down here?” he asked, hoping she didn’t pick up on his mood, unfortunately for him, she did.

“I’m stuck as Supergirl for the next few weeks, so I’ll be doing a lot of work to try and help the DEO to deal with Cadmus, have you found a new job then yet?” She asked him, smiling and hoping that his mood, no matter why it was like that, would soon improve. She missed her Daxomite friend, and ever since she rescued him from Cadmus, he just wasn’t the same.

Barry watched as Savitar possessed Julian and looked around at each of them in turn, assessing them, figuring out their weaknesses, their desires, how best to defeat them.

“Savitar.” Barry spat.

“None of you are on your knees. It is normal to bow when you are before a deity.” Savitar growled out.

“You’re not a God.”

“To be a God you just have to make people believe you are.” Savitar reasoned with Barry.

“No-one believes in you.” Iris stated.

“You should, Iris.” Savitar spoke as the others looked shocked that he knew who she was. “I hold the power of life and death over all of you.”

“How do you know so much about us?” Caitlin asked, scared of what Savitar could know.

“I know you Caitlin. Cisco, Joe, Wally, the fake Wells.” Savitar snarled “I know your fears, I know your weaknesses, I know you better than you know yourselves.” Savitar allowed himself a sickening grin. “I know your destinies. One shall betray you. One shall fall. One shall suffer a fate far worse than death. This is the knowledge I have for you, about your everlasting damnation.” Savitar stated as the others looked shocked, Barry recovering first.

“Who are you?” Barry asked, if Savitar knew so much about the future, could he be related to Thawne in some way?

“I am the future, Flash.” Savitar stated.

“What do you want from us?” 

“Everything!” Savitar growled out “Everything you took from me, I want it back! And I’m going to take it back. Then, I will destroy you.” Savitar promised as Barry looked at him in disgust.

“Then why haven’t you already? If you’re all powerful, then why don’t you just go ahead and kill us all now, be done with it. Because you can’t.” Barry reasoned, feeling nothing but revulsion for Savitar. The man was not a God, and he’d proven he wasn’t one.

“You did this to me. You trapped me, in this eternity. Your future self, you did this to me, Barry!” Savitar cried out in anger as Barry looked shocked at him.

‘My future…..the same one who said I couldn’t be trusted?’ Barry wondered.

“And now the age of my revenge rises, my freedom is at hand. You will feel my wrath! The wrath of Savitar!” He yelled before Barry pulled the headset from Julian, shutting Savitar back out and waking Julian up once more.

‘Oh God, I created Savitar….what did I do?’ Barry thought to himself. ‘How badly will I keep screwing up in the future?’

As the group regrouped in the main console room and discussed what to do, Jay suggested they throw the box into the Speed Force, Barry using Jay’s speed to catapult it into eternity and rid the world of Savitar for good. 

“Will it work?”

“Only one way to find out.” Barry stated as him and Jay got suited up to go for a run.

Barry and Jay raced through the pipeline before Barry could throw the box into the Speed Force, as he did so, a burst of energy blasted into him and Barry found himself landing on a cold, wet paving slab on the outside world. As he walked around to get his bearings, he heard a voice pleading. His own voice! He snuck over to see himself, pleading with Savitar, who held Iris aloft in his arm.

“You lose, Barry.” Savitar gloated as he plunged a blade into Iris, the future Flash too slow to save her. Barry saw this and felt his heart breaking, Iris was going to die? Is that why the article didn’t read Iris West-Allen, and not, as Barry may have hoped, because Barry was with someone else?

Suddenly, Barry felt a hand on his shoulder and he was pulled through a breach, back to 2016 Central City by Jay Garrick.

“Jay? What the hell was that, where was I?” Barry demanded to know.

“The future.” Jay surmised, as Barry looked in shock. He’d gone to the past several times, but never travelled to the future like that before.

As Barry asked about what he saw in the future and claimed he would change it, Jay got angry and told him about why nobody should know their own future.

“Just as there are infinite Earth’s in the multiverse, there are infinite possibilities in the future, it’s always bending, always changing, every decision you make creates another alternative!” Jay shouted at him, hoping he could make Barry see sense. Nothing he could do would change that future if he went into it believing it would happen, Barry would inadvertently cause it to happen.

“I won’t let Iris die.” Barry stated, no matter what his future was to be with Iris, Barry was damned if it wasn’t going to be a long, fulfilling and happy life for Iris West, his best friend, and possibly more.

As Jay left to return to Earth-3, the others asked what happened.

“Is the stone gone?”

“I think so, it’s hard to tell.” Barry stated.

“Not really, either Savitar has gone for a sleep with the fishes or not.” Cisco reasoned.

“I was knocked into the future.” Barry started, and once he started he found he couldn’t stop. “Apparently it was one possible future, and it’s always prone to change, but it was five months from now, I saw my future self, pleading. Savitar was there.”

“He was?!” The others asked, shocked, they hoped he was gone, what would it take to get rid of the speedster?

“There’s more, I was pleading for him to spare her, but I wasn’t fast enough, he murdered her and then ran, leaving my future self to cradle her.” Barry broke into tears and began to sob uncontrollably as the others gathered around him, comforting him.

“It’s ok, it hasn’t and won’t happen, and you’ll save her.” Iris reasoned before Barry broke into even more sobs, Julian looking awkward at the emotion Allen was exhibiting.

“Who was it, Barry?” Caitlin asked kindly, hating seeing her friend in this pain.

“Iris. He murdered Iris.” Barry emotionlessly stated as the others looked at one another in shock, Iris feeling the world was slipping from under her as Joe and Wally looked at her in fear, tears streaming from everyone’s eyes. They couldn’t and wouldn’t lose Iris. (Since this isn’t an Iris romance, they aren’t moving in together, and really, how do you get into the Christmas spirit after a bombshell like that?)

Kara looked at her watch, having received a text from Clark, he told her to meet him here at this time, in this old, abandoned warehouse. She knew from stereotypes alone this is where the villains usually met, not the good guys.

‘Barry’s rubbing off on me.’ She thought to herself with a slight blush.

Kara heard a noise and looked up to see Kal descending from a hole in the ceiling above before landing on the floor before her.

Kal grinned as Kara approached him. “I brought a friend.”

“Where is he?” she asked, looking around and seeing nobody.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a dark shape moving, as suddenly a person dropped to the ground from out of the dark corner of the building he was hiding in.

“He likes theatrics.” Clark explained.

“Hey.” The man said, his voice gravelly and rough. “I’m Batman.”


	12. Savitar and Cadmus II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry goes up against the Trickster and waits for Savitar's next play, whilst Kara continues to fight against Cadmus.

“So….Batman?” Kara asked, wondering why the Bat of Gotham was here, and honestly confused by his appearance. She expected more bat-like and less…creepy.

“I told him that we needed help in tracking Henshaw and Cadmus, and even without his crime fighting skills, he has one of the most brilliant minds on the planet.” Kal said, hoping Kara would warm up to him. Bruce was an acquired taste, as he knew only too well, but he had a niggling suspicion that Kara would like him. With how little she’d explained of what happened on Earth-1, it seemed Bruce and this Oliver would be similar characters.

“I promised your cousin that if he ever needed me, I’d be there. I protect the weak and serve justice, and this Henshaw character sounds like he needs to be stopped.” Batman said, looking Supergirl up and down. He’d followed her exploits on the news after she revealed herself and he had hoped that like with Clark, he’d be able to team up with her on a mission one day. He wanted to see if she was anything like her cousin.

“So, what do you know of Cadmus and Hank?” Kara asked Bruce, because with brawn she knew both she and Kal were more than a match, and in brains she was sure Winn would be up to the task.

“I know they’re ran by Lillian Luthor, Hank is a cybernetically enhanced assassin now for them, and that they’re a threat to everyone simply due to their methods.” Batman stated. He wanted to be clear, concise and ready to go. They didn’t have time to go over everything in Cadmus’ history. He knew about them and he knew the two Kryptonian’s knew about them, they needed to focus on tracking Henshaw, and once they had him, they could find Cadmus and stop them.

“Hank won’t be an easy fight.” Kara warned, hoping Batman knew just what he was getting himself into. “I fought him single-handedly and would have been dead had he not got distracted, and, no offence, but I’m pretty sure I’m stronger than you are.”

“None taken, I’m aware of your history, and I have taken measures to ensure he would not best me in single combat. I have a wide array of tools at my disposal to even the playing field, I am certain I could help you defeat him, or even take him myself if required.” Batman stated, he wasn’t trying to boast to Kara, he had prepared for this, he knew he could handle Hank alone if needed.

“Do we have any leads on where Hank might strike next?” Kal asked, hoping the DEO may have found something whilst he was recruiting Bruce to this cause.

“None yet, but we’ve got every available agent looking for him. Once we have a hit, we’ll take him.” Kara sighed. She wished she had some more concrete answers for Kal, but for now, they were flying blind in regards to Cadmus’ next move. Since Lillian had been freed without the testimony of Supergirl as to her involvement, and the fact the DEO was no longer able to hold human prisoners as it had with Maxwell Lord (Kinda a human rights violation so I’m just going to say the new President shut that down) Luthor had been freed after stewing for a few weeks. She’d gone underground, and not even Lena knew where she was now. Until Cadmus made its next move to try and wipe out all alien life on the planet, they were in the reeds with this one.

“I can have my satellites try and trace any suspected Cadmus activity.” Batman stated. “Combined with your DEO, I hope we can quickly find where these rats are hiding and flush them out.”

“Your satellites?” Kara asked, not knowing who Batman was exactly.

“I’m sorry, Kara, I forgot to introduce you properly.” Kal rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Kara, this is Bruce Wayne, AKA Batman. Bruce, this is Kara Zor-El, my cousin.”

“Wow, you’re THE Bruce Wayne, the biggest competitor to Maxwell Lord?”

“The same, do you know Lord?” Bruce asked.

“Let’s just say we’re not friends.” Kara put bluntly.

“I’ll be happy to give you all the help I can.” Bruce stated. “Cadmus is a threat to all of us, even if they claim to be only targeting aliens, and I won’t stop until they’re gone.”

“Well we’ll be grateful for all the help we can get.” Kara smiled. It would hopefully be over much quicker with the help of Wayne Enterprises.

“We’ll start by searching the sites he’s attacked and see what patterns come up, such as if the places are close to one another, or if they all research the same things, and try to figure where he’ll go next from that.” Batman said, taking charge of the investigation like a natural.

As Barry wandered the streets of Central City, watching the snow falling all around him, he wondered for the millionth time in recent days why was it that life seemed to hate him the last few years? Oliver had once said the bolt of lightning had chosen him, it seemed more like it was a punishment some days. Sure, he had super speed and amazing friends, but he had no parents, any woman he loved either seemed to leave him or had the threat of being killed, and on top of it all, all the recent threats, such as the Dominators or Savitar, seemed to be of his making, it was like he could do nothing right. (Don’t worry about depressing Barry, he’s like this in the show too if you notice, he’ll start to cheer up after this arc)

‘If only Kara was here sometimes, having a super-powered alien with a lot more powers than me would be a boon sometimes.’ Barry wistfully thought to himself as he wondered what she was doing back home. Probably saving the world again from evil metahumans or stopping an asteroid from destroying National City. 

As Barry walked his phone began to ring, looking down and seeing the name he answered.

“What’s going on?”

“Barry, we’ve got readings from Central City Bank, they’re under attack.” Cisco stated. “We need you to get here and get ready.”

“On my way.” Barry said, ensuring the street was empty before racing off towards S.T.A.R labs. As he got there and got changed he noticed Cisco’s frown.

“Cisco? You ok?” Barry asked him.

“Oh? Yeah I’m fine….go get them.” Cisco stated before trailing off and looking blankly into space. Barry shook his head, he’d talk to Cisco once he got back. Racing off, he rushed over to the bank to find himself face to face with one of his old enemies. 

“Hello Speedy, what took you so long?” The deranged face of the Trickster laughed as Barry arrived.

“Trickster! How did you escape prison this time?” Barry asked, wanting to put this guy away again quickly.

“I’ll let you in on the secret, if you do me a quick favour first?” Trickster asked, his deranged eyes narrowed in focus on Barry.

“I’m going to take you down anyway, Trickster, may as well make it easy on yourself.”

“Now that’s no fun Flash, surely you’ve got a sense of humour, love a trick, as it were?” Trickster laughed to himself.

“What is it, Trickster?” Barry asked, wondering what Trickster had up his sleeve this time and how to quickly negate it.

“Well...” Trickster stated before he quickly grabbed Barry’s wrist and threw a powdery substance over him. As Barry began to cough as the power reached his face, he started to feel an itching sensation over his body. 

“What is this? Itching powder?” He called out as he began to scratch himself and cough.

“Not just itching powder, but patented itching powder.” Trickster laughed before he rushed over and punched Barry in the chest, knocking him to the floor. “Not only does it itch further the more you scratch, but it has a special quality when inhaled, if you don’t deal with it soon, speedy, well you’ll be gone as quickly as you came.” Trickster giggled to himself as Barry struggled to get to his feet, the police closing in on the building. 

“See you later Flash.” Trickster ran towards the back of the bank as the police converged, knowing he needed this dealt with now, Barry raced as fast as he could back towards S.T.A.R, coughing and falling several times along the way, despite knowing he shouldn’t, he kept scratching himself, before he got into the lab and collapsed on the nearest table.

“Cisco! Caitlin! Help!” Barry yelled as Cisco rushed into the room to help Barry out of his suit. 

“We heard what Trickster said, Caitlin is trying to find a cure for it already.” Cisco stated.

“Got any ideas of what could help?” Barry said.

“None yet but we’re bound to find something before too long, don’t sweat it.” Cisco said, looking around the lab. Barry saw this and a frown appeared on his face.

“Hey, Cisco, you ok man?” Barry asked as he tried to refrain from scratching himself again, vibrating to keep his skin occupied, as he did so, he noticed his coughing seemed to stop and a fine powder seemed to float in the air from his skin.

“Yeah I’m fine….wait, how come we didn’t think of that?” Cisco stated, seeing the powder rising from Barry.

“I didn’t expect this to work, I just wanted to try alleviate the itching.” Barry muttered as Caitlin walked into the room, ready to update Barry on their search and seeing it rising.

“I’m sorry Barry, I didn’t think of getting you to vibrate to get rid of the powder.” Caitlin bashfully stated, not believing she hadn’t considered such a fix to the idea. 

“It’s ok, Caitlin, really.” Barry smiled. “I gotta dash guys and stop Trickster, but I want to speak to you later Cisco.” He frowned at Cisco who tried to avoid his eyes. “Listen, man, I know you’ve not been yourself since the thing with Savitar the other week, we should talk about what happened.” 

“Its fine, Barry, really.” Cisco bluntly stated as he walked out of the room, Caitlin flashing Barry an apologetic smile as she rushed off to see if he was ok. Barry sighed, wondering how he could make Cisco see they cared for him and wanted to help him, before rushing off himself. Trickster was going down.

 

“Found him!” 

“Where?” Kara asked, hurrying over to where Bruce was hunched over a monitor. They’d spent the better part of three days going over all the records they could as well as exploring all of the leads they had on known Cadmus agents or on Hank Henshaw.

“He’s been spotted heading into the CatCo building. I’m not sure why he’d want a media outlet when Cadmus has their own propaganda machine, but if we have a lead on him, a solid one this time, I say we take him down.” Batman counselled. 

“Let’s go.” Kal said as the three of them got ready to head off. J’onn would be standing by with the DEO and they would sweep in and clean up the mess afterwards, with both Kryptonians along with the Batman on him, Hank Henshaw would soon be stopped.

As Kara and Kal got to CatCo they saw the people running from the building and hearing the screams from the upper floors.

“I’ll take the other side of the building, you go upto Cat’s office!” Kal called as Kara flew up to see if she could engage Hank. Rising into the air she tried to use her X-Ray vision, seeing part of the building where her gaze couldn’t penetrate, she knew that had to be where Hank was.

“Kal, he’s coated in lead!” Kara called out to her cousin, to alert him that he wouldn’t show up on x-ray visions.

Kara flew onto the balcony of Cat Grant’s former office to see James, holding a woman behind his desk and keeping their heads down. When he saw her, he gave her a weak smile.  
“Supergirl! Thank God you’re back in town!” James called to her quietly as the woman behind the desk weakly sobbed. “Where have you been?”

“Let’s just say I was out of town.” She sheepishly replied. “What happened here?”

“Cyborg Superman started smashing up the place, demanding that we hand over all of our records to him to take them back to Cadmus. I refused and he attacked people, plenty ran, I grabbed the nearest person I could and brought her here, to protect someone at least.” James stated, wondering where Kara could have been to have taken so long. He knew she was back already from Kal, and thought she needed space, which is why he hadn’t pursued her before now. Now he wondered if this was a mistake to wait.

“Don’t worry, just help get people to safety, I’ll take care of him.” Kara promised, sending a grateful smile to him and a small blush at the thought of James being a hero. She still had feelings for James, regardless of her thoughts about Barry, and she knew he loved her still. She just wasn’t sure if she had time for a relationship right now, and even if she did, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be with him.

Kara stood up and walked out of the office, a calm look on her face as she watched James cover the shaking employee with his own body. She knew the woman would be in safe hands as she looked over to see where Hank was destroying the computers, he hadn’t noticed her yet it seemed.

“Hey! Hank Henshaw may have been a dick, but at least he was a human one!” Kara called as Cyborg Superman turned and fixed her with a hateful gaze.

“So, you’re alive.” He stated, as he began to break into a run racing towards her. 

“Now!” Kara yelled as she fired her heat vision at him, another beam hitting Hank from the window as Kal arrived outside, as Hank snarled at the heat of the two Kryptonian’s, melting his arm and burning the skin off of him, he began to retreat, until suddenly bullets flew through the air, whistling as they made contact with his body, he fell forward with a grunt of pain as Batman attacked him from behind.

“Not so tough now, are you?” Kara asked as Hank lay on the floor, moaning, he turned himself over to give her a look of pure malice. 

“I may have lost this battle, but you alien freaks and your friends have lost this war.” He spat at her as Kal flew over to her and grabbed Hank in one arm, gesturing for Kara to grab his other arm. It was time to take Hank to the DEO and pump him for information on Cadmus and their plans. Afterwards, over to the authorities for a trial with the crimes he’d committed in the name of Cadmus. 

“Thank you, Batman, without you, who knows what Hank could have done.” Kal smiled gratefully at his friend. It seemed a lot easier with Bruce’s help….almost too easy. Kal frowned at the idea of this being a trap, there was no-one else here helping Hank and he was defeated, this was it, it was over. Soon Cadmus would fall and the world would be safe, he knew it.

As Barry raced towards the last known location of the Trickster, he knew he would not fail to bring down this dangerous criminal. Barry raced towards the last known hideout of the Trickster, hoping against hope that there would be some clue there as to his whereabouts. When he got inside, he sped around the block a few times to suss out the place and case the environment, once he saw it was clear, he sneaked over to the side entrance and stealthily entered the building, hoping the Trickster hadn’t booby trapped every single door in the place. 

Fortunately for Barry, it seemed the Trickster either wasn’t home, or had gotten lax lately, the door wasn’t trapped and he slipped into the warehouse. Looking around the place, he noticed several old newspaper clippings on the floors and dusty cobwebs hanging from the ceilings. Trickster hadn’t been there for months, clearly.

“Guys, we got any leads on where he might have gone?” Barry asked into his comms.

“I’m looking at tracking the trail that itching powder makes.” Caitlin replied to him. “Cisco is still…occupied.” She finished lamely.

“Look into it Caitlin, what about Wally, is he ready to suit up?” Barry asked. It’d be nice to have backup from Kid Flash on this one, a good way to break him in rather than letting him try his mettle for the first time properly against Savitar and possibly risk his life needlessly.

“Wally’s out of town, he went with Joe and Iris to visit some extended family in Coast City.” Caitlin reminded him. “You’ve taken him alone before when you weren’t as prepared and weren’t as fast, you’ve got this Barry.” She encouraged her old friend as he got ready to take Trickster out.

“We got a fix on him then yet Caitlin?” He asked as he waited to see where to race off too.

“Got it, the trail from it leads to an abandoned warehouse just north of the river, about 5 miles from your location. Satellite imagery shows there’s only one heat signature in the building, doesn’t look like its booby trapped, but be careful Barry.” Caitlin asked him.

“I always am Cait.” Barry finished with a grin as he raced towards where Caitlin directed him, finding the abandoned warehouse, he snuck into a side door, seeing the lights turned on, Barry slunk against the side wall towards a raised platform on the other side of the room, where he could see the Trickster hunched over a table, sparks flying from a workbench.  
Barry approached cautiously as he heard the Trickster mumbling to himself.

“That goes there, this goes here, tighten it up a bit here…”

As Barry stepped out behind him, suddenly the Trickster burst out into laughter.

“I wondered if you’d come, Speedy. Surprised you managed to shake off the powder.” Trickster laughed some more as he turned around to face Barry, his face gaunt and pale, his eyes bloodshot.

“What’s happening to you?” Barry asked aloud, shocked at the appearance. A few hours ago, the man looked fine.

“Oh this? You like it? I’m trying out a new look.” Trickster laughed before he began to cough himself, specks of blood flying to the floor from his mouth. 

Barry watched in horror as the Trickster began to cough more and more, blood falling from his lips, he rushed over to Trickster to grab him as the man’s knees buckled and he fell to the floor.

“Didn’t expect this, did you Flash? Guess even the Trickster got tricked by his own inventions in the end. Whoops.” The man let out another giggle before another coughing fit hit him.

“We can get you to the hospital, they can do something!” Barry cried out. He may not like the Trickster and the man may be a danger to everyone in Central City, but nobody deserved to die like this, and he needed to pay for his crimes against the city.

“Too late, not even you’re fast enough to save me, speedy.” He coughed out one last time before shuddering and falling limp in Barry’s arms, his eyes closing for the last time.

“Barry? Barry, you there?” Caitlin’s voice spoke into Barry’s earpiece.

“Yeah…I’m here.” Barry stated, coming out of his shock.

“You catch him? I see one of the heat signatures starting to fade a little.” She stated, worried.

“He’s dead, Cait. Whatever he did, it backfired on him. He died in my arms.” Barry broke away.

“It’s ok, Barry. It wasn’t your fault and the people of Central City are safe from the Trickster now. You did good.” Caitlin soothed in his ear. She hoped Barry wouldn’t blame himself, he couldn’t protect everyone and sometimes people died. She knew that he should get that by now, but he always seemed to blame himself.

“I’m on my way back, notify CCPD that they can find the Trickster here, he died from his own poisonous powder.” Barry stated as he raced off back towards S.T.A.R labs, he still needed that talk with Cisco, and he needed to freshen up. It was time to let the Trickster go for good, he couldn’t win them all, but this one, despite how hollow it was, he’d take this as a win. Trickster couldn’t hurt anyone ever again, and Barry would be happy to just accept that. 

As Barry raced back towards S.T.A.R labs he failed to notice the hooded figure lurking in the shadows on the outside of the building. The figure looked as the Flash zoomed into the building, a smirk on his lips as he saw Barry race inside.

“Soon enough my time will be at hand, the final pieces are falling into place. Before long, I will be ready. My ally will open the way between the worlds with his speed, and once Savitar merges our worlds together, I will prove there is only one Flash. The Reverse Flash.”


	13. Savitar and Cadmus III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry helps Cisco deal with the aftermath of Dante's death as Kara deals with the interest of James.

‘One shall betray you. One shall fall. One shall suffer a fate far worse than death.’ The Reverse Flash mused on this as he awaited Savitar’s arrival. It wasn’t easy, accessing the Speed Force and finding out exactly where Savitar had ended up so he could release him from the box, but now he had done it, he knew it was only a matter of time before Savitar upheld his end of the bargain. Once they ran fast enough together, the pure energy they created could be combined and harnessed, and with luck, the worlds could be merged. Once the multiverse was cracked, and the worlds merged together, the only two speedsters left would be Barry and himself. Savitar wanted the unlimited power of the Speed Force, and once he ran fast enough, he would merge with it, becoming one with it. His sacrifice would power the Reverse Flash, and in turn, he would mount Barry Allen’s head on a spike and prove there is only one man worthy of Speed. Once the universes had merged, his progenitor would be destroyed in the blast and would be erased, leaving only him. Thaddeus Thawne. 

Thawne turned as he felt a breeze behind him, looking around he saw Savitar appear before him, Thawne smirked at the sight of him.

“Lord Savitar, an honour.” He dipped his head slightly.

“Thawne. You have done well to bring us this far.” Savitar grated, fixing Thawne with a piercing gaze. “But we must finish this. Find Julian, I will have my Alchemy back to begin the final preparations. Soon they will learn what it means to defy me.”

“As you wish.” Thawne stated as Savitar vanished once more, speeding away. He would find Julian Albert and bring him back here, and when the time came, he would use Julian to bring forth Savitar’s true potential. He would gladly defer to Savitar until the original speedster merged with the Speed Force, and once he had, Thawne would then rule over all speedsters forevermore. With one last grin to himself, he threw off his hood to reveal his green outfit before he sped off towards the glittering outline of Central City in the distance, one thought in his mind. To destroy the Flash. 

As Barry walked through the halls of S.T.A.R labs looking for Cisco, he reflected on all that had happened the last few weeks, the Trickster, Iris, the Dominators, everything was just too much for him sometimes. At times like this, when too much had happened, Barry thought that the bolt of lightning hadn’t chose him as a hero, a figure to protect and look up to, but as a punishment, choosing him as a way of prolonging the torture for transgressions he had yet to make.

He came up to Cisco’s workshop to see his friend by his station, tweaking his Vibe glasses. He knocked on the door and walked in as Cisco looked up to see him, placing his tools on the table before him, he fixed a smile on his face and looked over at Barry.

“Hey, Barry, what’s up?” Cisco asked, forcing the smile to stay on his face.

“You ok man? I know the last few weeks have been a bit rough, is there anything you want to talk about?” Barry enquired, a frown on his face. He knew Cisco would say all was fine, but everyone could see the fake smiles, the sadness in his eyes, he needed to get whatever it was off his chest, and Barry had a pretty good idea what that something was. Dante.

“Yeah Barry, I’m fine. I keep saying so.” Cisco bluntly stated. He was sick of being asked all the time about how he was. He’d moved on. He’d forgiven Barry for Flashpoint, so why couldn’t they let it go? Let him grieve Dante in his own time, in his own way.

“Listen man, I know you’re not ok, you know you’re not and we need to talk about it. What did Savitar show you?” Barry asked. He needed to know how to get through to Cisco. 

Cisco stared at him for a few minutes, the silence between the two friends deafening, before he finally spoke, his voice quiet and cracking.

“I saw Dante. He told me he could be revived using the stone, which is why I opened the box. I forgave you, Barry, but I’ll never forgive myself for not repairing my relationship with Dante before his death.”

“Cisco, you can’t blame yourself. Dante’s death wasn’t anyone’s fault but Zoom’s. We can’t blame ourselves or each other for it.” Barry stated.

“But don’t you do that yourself? You blame yourself for your mother, for your father, for everything that has happened with Flashpoint!” Cisco cried. 

“I do, and that is my burden to bear.” Barry admitted “But Dante was not your fault in any way. If I could bring him back without ruining the timeline, for you, Cisco, I would, in a second.” Barry sighed. “But you cannot blame yourself. We’re all here for you, and we will make sure that Savitar pays for tormenting you with Dante’s memory.”

“Barry, I get it, I really do, but some things….some things can’t be forgiven or forgotten overnight. I just….I just need time.” Cisco broke off as tears filled his eyes and he began to sob. 

At the sight of this, Barry felt his heart break as he reached over and pulled his friend into a hug, letting Cisco get it all out as he held him, ensuring he would be ok. He swore to himself that he would make Savitar pay for harming Cisco, just one of many reasons he would defeat Savitar.

As Barry held Cisco to him, an alarm blared throughout S.T.A.R labs, Barry and Cisco both raising their heads in surprise at it. Suddenly Caitlin’s voice came over the intercom.  
“Guys, we’ve got a situation up here, it’s Julian, he’s gone!”

Barry looked at Cisco, determination clouding his face and being mirrored within Cisco’s, before the two of them got up and raced towards the cortex, to find out what the situation was. When they got there, it was to see Caitlin’s worried face.

“You know we installed cameras at Julian’s to watch out for him? Well this happened about five minutes ago.” Caitlin looked ashen as she clicked play on a video, projecting it for Cisco and Barry.

They saw Julian in his apartment when the door suddenly flew open and wind whipped around the room, the force of it sending Julian flying backwards, and a man dressed in green walked in, lightning from the Speed Force crackling around him.

“Julian Albert.” The man spoke in a distorted voice as Julian looked at him in fear, as he shakily rose to meet the figure.

“Yes, who are you? What do you want?” Julian spoke, his voice shaky but loud, he would not be cowed by this Meta trying to intimidate him. 

“Savitar has need of you.” The man plainly spoke.

“He does, does he? Well I’m through with that! Tell your boss I am not Alchemy any longer, he will never win here.”

“Oh but he will.” The man in green chuckled. “Now come with me, boy, and embrace your destiny.”

“I’d never do what Savitar’s lackey wanted me to do.” Julian spat at him. “Now get out of here, speedster.”

“I am no ordinary speedster.” The man growled “I am the Reverse Flash, and you are coming with me.” The man raced over and grabbed Julian, bolting from the apartment in a streak of lightning before Julian could even cry out, the only evidence of the event being the destroyed apartment.

“Barry, I don’t know…” Caitlin started before trailing off.

“It’s ok Caitlin. I know that’s not Thawne, he wore yellow.” Barry said, Thawne wouldn’t come back, he just knew it. The man was defeated and gone for good, this pretender, whoever he was, he wouldn’t last long. Barry would stop him and save Julian from whatever Savitar had planned. He just knew he would.

“So we have another speedster working for Savitar who calls himself the Reverse Flash.” Cisco frowned.

“Could he be from Flashpoint?” Caitlin asked.

“Could be, but I don’t remember any Reverse Flash except the Rival or Thawne from then.” Barry admitted.

“We’ll think of something.” Cisco replied as HR walked into the room, scanning their faces, he frowned.

“Has something happened?”

“Savitar is back.” Barry spat as HR’s eyes widened.

“But, we sent him away, didn’t we? Into the Speed Force?”

“Evidently he’s harder to get rid of than we hoped.” Caitlin replied as HR looked shocked.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” HR asked as Cisco cracked a small smile.

“Sorry HR but leave this to the actual geniuses.” He smiled as HR looked bashful. 

“I will do, word is bond.” He nodded his head and held his hands together before leaving the room again much to the bemusement of the others.

“What sort of leads do we have on this new speedster? Any known direction he ran in?” Barry asked as Caitlin began to check CCTV feeds to see if anywhere picked up a flash of lightning.

“The trail heads South towards Star City, but it will take a while for me to pinpoint exactly where he’s taken Julian.” Caitlin said. 

“Well it’s time to suit up. I’ll call Wally, see if they’re nearly back. I’ll need all the help I can get if Savitar is there.” Barry admitted as he left the room and called Wally, Wally confirming that he’d be there in a short time and to hold on chasing Savitar until he was there. When the West’s arrived it was to bring some happy news with them.

“Cecile’s pregnant!” Joe cried as they walked through the doors, to hugs from Barry, Caitlin and Cisco and congratulations from HR.

“That’s great news Joe, I’m really happy for you.” Barry smiled at his adoptive father as Joe embraced him in another hug.

“Will you be Godfather, Bar?” Joe asked as Barry’s eyes widened in shock.

“I’d love too, but why me?”

“Because you’re one of the best men I know and I know your little brother or sister will be safe with you.” Joe smiled as Barry blushed.

“I’ll do my best.” Barry smiled as Joe clapped him on the back.

“So, what’s all this then about Savitar? I hoped we’d gotten rid of that guy.” Joe said, his face falling as he remembered what Barry had told him about his vision of the future.

“Julian’s been taken. The man who did it claimed he was doing it for Savitar.” Barry sighed as Joe’s eyes widened.

“I didn’t hear Julian was gone, is he Alchemy again?”

“No, he refused to co-operate so the speedster grabbed him, but I have the feeling Savitar will try force him to be Alchemy again.”

“We’ll find him, we’ll rescue Julian and we’ll stop Savitar for good, do we have a plan on how to do that?” Joe asked.

“We’re working on one, but I have an idea, Savitar uses a metal suit when he is moving, both extreme heat and extreme cold should take that down. I’ve got a way we can get access to both easily enough.” 

 

As Kal and Kara brought Hank Henshaw into the DEO prison the man began to rant again about the evils of the aliens and how Cadmus would protect mankind and save the Earth from their threat.

“Man, he doesn’t shut up with the propaganda does he?” Winn asked as he came over to the two of them, watching as they placed him in the cell and closed the door up.

“Hopefully now he’s in here, he’ll no longer be a threat.” Kara stated as Kal left to find J’onn and Kara and Winn walked through the DEO together.

“What do you think Cadmus’ next move will be?” Winn asked.

“They’ll probably go out for an attack, either to free Hank or at the very least to prove we can’t stop them.” Kara reasoned. If they acted as she expected, they’d be ready for them.

“Well we can get agents posted at crucial areas, have alerts sounding and we can count on Batman, so cool he’s here by the way, and Superman at least for help.” Winn smiled. “We’ll beat them Kara, no doubt about it.”

“I don’t doubt that Winn, I worry what the price will be for the innocents who Cadmus will target in an attempt to draw us out and make us suffer, you know they’ve shown they’re not above hurting whoever they want to achieve their goals.” Kara worried, she hated that they couldn’t fight fire with fire sometimes, but they were the better people, and they had to show they were so that people would realise Cadmus are the enemy.

“We’ll stop them, don’t worry about it.” Winn smiled, ever the optimist, much like Kara in that respect. “So, what’s the deal with Mon-El?” Winn asked, winking at Kara who blushed slightly.

“N-Nothing, what do you mean?”

“I mean how since Thanksgiving every time he sees you he lights up, or he’s in a mood, depending on whether or not you’ve mentioned Barry Allen at all that day.” Winn laughed at the look of exasperation that suddenly overcame Kara’s face.

“I know Mon-El likes me, and we kissed, ok, we did.” Kara admitted to a shocked Winn, he’d picked up on the flirting, but the kiss news was new. “But he doesn’t remember it, and nothing else has happened since then. I think he wants too, as he put it, mate, with me, but I’m not sure myself, he’s a great guy, but I can’t see myself with him.” Kara admitted.

“Tough break, eh?” Winn jerkily laughed before stopping himself and walking on with Kara in silence for a few moments. “So, what now? Back to Catco or are you sticking with Supergirl until Cadmus makes their move?”

“I think it’s time for me to return to Catco.” Kara smiled.

“You sure about that? Shouldn’t we focus on this?” Winn queried.

“We can’t do anything until Cadmus makes their move, so all we can do for now is move on, act normal and continue on with things.” Kara reminded him.  
Kara bade Winn farewell and headed to get changed, changing, she walked out of the DEO offices and headed for the Catco building, intending to announce her return from a sabbatical and return to work.

Walking into the building, she was greeted by the shocked faces of her co-workers, including Snapper, who looked at her in disgust as she approached him.

“I’m back boss.” She smiled at him as he frowned at her.

“I see that, blondie, what I want to know is why you left without forewarning me and why you think it’s acceptable to expect to still have a job after all of that.” Snapper glared at her.

“She’s still got a job because I say she does.” Came a new voice, turning to see who it was, Kara noticed James stood there, arms folded and glaring at Snapper.

“Well if I don’t want her here, then she doesn’t.” Snapper retorted.

“She’s one of your best and I am the one who signs your pay check, Snapper.” James replied. “So she still works here, for you.”

“Alright, but mark my words, Olsen, this isn’t over.” Snapper snarled as he went back to his office. “Get to work Danvers or get out.”

“Actually, I’m here to steal Kara for a short while.” James smiled as Snapper just frowned and waved them off, he had more important things to worry about than an office romance today.

Kara smiled gratefully at James as they walked through the office together.

“Thanks James, but what did you want with me?” Kara asked.

“Can’t a guy say hi to his girlfriend?” James smirked.

“Girlfriend? We’ve hardly spent any time at all the past few months.” Kara protested. “I thought you had gone off of me.”

“I could never lose interest in you, Kara.” James smiled as he stopped in his tracks, bending down slightly to hold her face in his hands and pressing his lips lightly to hers.  
Kara was shocked as James pressed his lips to her own, believing he had lost interest in her, she’d stopped thinking of him like that the past few weeks, but as their lips met, she felt herself melting into his caress, the taste of his lips on her own made her heart race and her stomach fill with butterflies. This felt so amazing to her, so why did it feel wrong?  
As they broke apart, James smiled at her again before looking at the clock and seeing it was approaching lunch.

“Hey, Kara, do you mind heading out and getting us some quick lunch, whilst I go speak to Snapper about his conduct with you again?”

“Sure, Jimmy.” Kara snorted as he smiled at her again before walking off, Kara heading out to go get lunch, her mind still in a daze and her heart still racing from her interaction with James. At least she knew now that he still liked her, and she knew she liked him, so what made her think that this might not be the right thing for her?

As she walked down the street she suddenly felt a vibrating in her pocket, opening it up she noticed it was the interdimensional extrapolator that Cisco had designed.

“Hey, what’s up?” Kara asked, wondering what they needed her for now.

“Kara!” The voice of Cisco came through the device. “It’s Savitar, is this a bad time?”

“No, what’s going on?” Kara asked, it really wasn’t the best time, but if Barry and her other friends needed her, she’d be there in a heartbeat.

“We think we’ve found him.” Cisco replied.

 

“So, what’s your plan Barry for taking down Savitar?” Caitlin asked, wondering how he planned to get heat and ice at the same time.

“It’s simple, we call Kara for some help.” Barry said as the others eyes widened in shock, why hadn’t they thought of that?

“That’d be really cool, super powered alien badass against a metal speedster?” Cisco asked.

“Yeah, hopefully she’s not too busy with the threats on her Earth to come give us a bit of help.” Wally said, what little he’d seen of Kara he had liked, even though she’d knocked him out when he went to help Barry and Oliver fight them all off.

“Wouldn’t take too long hopefully, we just need to take Savitar down. If we can find the Philosopher’s stone, close it, he’s trapped again, the main issue will be this other speedster.” Barry stated. “We don’t know who he is, we know he works with Savitar, but we need to know why, how to stop him and who he really is.” 

“I’ll call Kara, you guys figure out where Savitar and this new Reverse Flash ran off too.” Cisco said as he went off to go get the interdimensional extrapolator. He rang her up and waited to hear her reply as Barry and the others went to go suit up.

“Hey, what’s up?” Kara asked, wondering what they needed her for now as she answered the call from Earth-1.

 

“Kara!” The voice of Cisco came through the device. “It’s Savitar, is this a bad time?”

“No, what’s going on?” Kara asked, it really wasn’t the best time, but if Barry and her other friends needed her, she’d be there in a heartbeat.

“We think we’ve found him.” Cisco replied.

“Really? I’ll be right over. Just give me a few minutes.” Kara replied as she hung up.

Cisco waited for the next few minutes in his lab, until suddenly a breach opened before him and Kara stepped out, already in her Supergirl costume.

“Ok, where are we going?” Kara asked as she observed the room, she hadn’t been in here the last time, and she had to say she was impressed with some of the technology she saw here, Cisco certainly knew his stuff.

“Everyone’s up in the Cortex, we’ll speak there. We think Savitar is about 10 miles south of the city, he took this guy named Julian prisoner, long story, but Julian was working for him and wanted out, Savitar decided there wasn’t an out allowed.” Cisco explained as Kara furrowed her brows. Savitar was a kidnapper as well as everything else now it seemed, she’d happily help teach him a lesson.

They walked to the Cortex together, Cisco telling her about their recent dealings, Kara filling him in on the fight with Hank and Batman’s appearance, a vigilante with high tech weapons dressed as a bat seemed to entertain Cisco, who stated he’d like to meet such a man one day, as they reached the Cortex Kara saw Barry and Wally both in their Flash suits, Caitlin behind the computers with Joe and Iris stood to the side, looking unsure as what to what they should do to help.

“Alright, we’ve got a fix on where Savitar is holding Julian, it’s a warehouse just outside the city.” Caitlin said as Barry and Kara looked at one another and grinned, remembering a conversation they once had about villains and abandoned warehouses.


	14. Savitar and Cadmus IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Kara and Wally face off against Savitar and Thaddeus Thawne, but who will win?

Barry and Wally raced around the perimeter of the building they’d tracked Savitar too as Kara waited nearby, floating behind the treeline. Once they’d figured out whether or not they were in there, and dealt with any security outside, they’d rush in and look at sending Savitar back into the speed force and deal with this new Reverse-Flash. 

“So, what are we looking it?” Kara called through her comms system.

“No outer security, looks like they want us to come find Julian, either that or they expected that no-one would find them.” Barry replied in her ear.

“Probably going to be a trap.” Wally stated.

“Yeah, but we need to rescue Julian, so what’s the plan?” Kara asked.

“We rush in, you come through the ceiling, 85% chance of punching?” Barry asked, Kara swearing she could hear his smirk through her ear piece.

“Let’s do it then.” Wally said as Barry raced with him, smashing through the warehouse doors, Kara flying towards the ceiling.

As Barry and Wally entered the building they saw Julian, unconscious and tied to a chair, with a man in a green suit similar to their own standing behind him.

“Ah, Flash, and Kid Flash, welcome.” The man stated.

“The Reverse Flash, I presume?” Barry asked.

“Ah, so you’ve heard of me. I had hoped you’d wired Mr Albert’s apartment. So, you know why we need him then?”

“It ends here, you won’t harm Julian or help Savitar.” Wally called out.

“Oh, won’t he?” Savitar’s grating voice sounded as he appeared in a bright flash before the speedsters, blades coming from his metallic arms.

“Now!” Barry yelled as Kara crashed through the ceiling, surprising Thawne and Savitar, Wally raced over to Thawne and attacked him, Thawne coming out of his shock to fight back, him and Wally exchanging punches as they raced around the room. 

Lightning flashed in Barry’s eyes as Savitar raced over and grabbed him by the neck, before roaring in pain and dropping him as Kara used her heat vision on him, Barry saw his arm start to melt and twist into a grotesque shape as the heat vision seared into it. Barry got up and raced over to Julian, quickly untying him and racing him outside.

“Run!” Barry called as he got Julian outside.

“Allen. Thank you.” Julian stated as he ran in the direction of Central City, Barry rushing back inside to join back in the fight. He saw Wally and the Reverse Flash still trading blows, Kara flying around, firing heat vision and breathing in the direction of Savitar, but the other speedster was too fast, and most of her attacks failed to hit the mark.

“Hey, Savitar!” Barry yelled out into the room as the speedster appeared before him. “Let’s finish this.”

“So eager to die?” Savitar gloated.

“Eager to finish you.” Barry growled as Kara fired off another heat vision beam, hitting Savitar in the back. He fell forwards with a shout as Barry raced around the room, generating lighting which he then flung at Savitar, causing the God of Speed to cry out.

“I will destroy you all!” He roared as he raced off, vanishing again in a flash of lightning, leaving the Reverse Flash alone in the room with the two speedsters and the Kryptonian. As Thawne looked over at the enemies surrounding him, he was struck from both sides by Barry and Wally at once and fell to the floor with a groan.

“It’s over. Now who are you?” Barry asked as Thawne began to chuckle to himself.

“You really think it’s over?” Thawne asked as he shakily stood, before rushing out of the room before any of the others could react. For now it was over. They had lost the new Reverse-Flash and Savitar was still loose, but Julian had been saved and their enemies had retreated. This was a victory, despite how small a victory.

“Hey guys, what’s going on over there?” Cisco asked in their ears.

“We rescued Julian but Savitar and the new Reverse Flash escaped.” Wally reported in.

“What’s the plan now?” Kara asked, landing next to Barry and Wally.

“We head back, see if we can get a trace on them, and you can head home Kara, we’ve given them a blow which hopefully will take them time to recover, especially with Savitar’s injury.” Barry said.

“No way, I’m with you until the end Barry Allen.” Kara firmly stated. She would not leave her friend to face this alone, hadn’t she shown him that before? He asked for her help and until Savitar was gone, he would be getting her help.

“I’m grateful for that Kara, but please, we’ve got this now.” Barry said, he didn’t want to risk Kara being hurt in this fight, and with Savitar weakened now, they could take him. He was sure of it.

“Barry, you do know he can’t hurt me, right?” Kara asked, she knew why he was being like this, the noble idiot he was, thinking he could keep everyone safe from harm. Savitar couldn’t hurt her and if he could, she chose to come here to help, it was her decision, not Barry’s, and she wouldn’t be held back by his worrying.

“I can’t risk you being hurt though Kara, you mean too much for me to watch you get hurt.” Barry lamely trailed off as Wally raced away, excusing himself from the scene.

“Barry, you know I won’t get hurt. You won’t risk me, if anything, I can’t see you get hurt.” Kara softly sighed as she looked into Barry’s eyes. She couldn’t bear to see Barry like this, but he needed to know she could handle herself, he knew she could, and Kara thought it selfish of Barry to tell her to stay out of this when he was risking himself. Wasn’t it her who actually damaged Savitar? Barry didn’t stand a chance alone against him and he knew it. He needed Kara, why couldn’t he admit that?

“Kara….” Barry began before trailing off. He couldn’t stand this. He didn’t want her hurt and deep down he knew he was acting irrationally, but she could be hurt by Savitar, the man had travelled countless universes, if anyone had a way of hurting Kara on Earth-1, it was Savitar, and Barry would do anything in his power to make sure that didn’t happen. Kara needed to see that Savitar was not a threat to be taken lightly, he was faster than them, sure he may be susceptible to being melted, but he could influence events even when sealed inside the box that housed the Philosopher’s stone, it was easily possible he had a way of healing the damage caused by Kara’s heat vision. They needed to stop him and fast, but Barry could not and would not risk Kara’s life for it.

“Barry, I know what I’m doing, I’ll be ok, we’ll do this.” Kara smiled at him. She could tell he needed some support, and she’d be only too happy to provide any support she could for him.

“Fine, but if there’s even a hint that Savitar could hurt you, I want you to get out of there, ok? You mean too much to me to let you get hurt.” Barry stubbornly stated.

“Ok.” Kara agreed, if it would get Barry to let her help, she’d agree to it. 

‘Wait, I mean too much to him?’ Kara thought with a blush. She didn’t know she meant so much to Barry. They’d kissed, sure, but she was worried that it would be just a casual thing, and Barry wouldn’t like her for long. She couldn’t help it, she’d fallen for Barry Allen, hard, and she hoped he felt the same way about her.

‘Did I say what I think I said?’ Barry thought to himself, cheeks reddening as he replayed his last few sentences in his head. Yep, he’d said it, he admitted how much he cared for Kara.

‘What an idiot, now she’s going to not want anything to do with you, well done Allen.’ Barry berated himself, why would she want anything to do with him? He was just Barry and she was Kara Danvers, or Kara Zor-El, and she was perfection to him, everything about her, her attitude, her bubbly personality, her stunning appearance, her optimism, everything about her screamed perfect to Barry and he knew he could never be worthy of her, little did he know, she believed herself unworthy of him.

“Guys, we’ve got a problem!” Cisco called down into the comms.

“What’s up Cisco?” Kara asked him.

“Savitar is here! He’s taken Iris!”

“Where are they?!” Barry yelled, panic gripping him like an icy hand around his heart. He couldn’t lose Iris, he just couldn’t.

“Wally’s gone after them, he’s at the waterfront.” Cisco called as Barry and Kara raced towards the water front, hoping they could get there before Savitar could hurt Iris or Wally.  
As they reached the waterfront they found Iris being held by the new Reverse-Flash, with Wally being beaten soundly by Savitar.

“You were never a hero, Wallace West.” Savitar said as Barry and Kara arrived. “Only a poor version of the Flash, not even a shadow worthy of my time.” He snarled as he threw Wally towards the water, Kara rushing to grab him and move him to safety, as Barry ran at the Reverse-Flash, knocking the other speedster to the ground, he pulled Iris away as Savitar looked on, amused by the display as the Reverse-Flash struggled to his feet.

“You cannot beat me Barry.” Savitar spoke. “Why do you bother to fight? Better to end it now.”

“You said my future self trapped you, Savitar. That means I do beat you.” Barry spat at him as he raced at the metallic speedster, Savitar opening his arms in a mocking gesture, urging Barry to charge at him and play his game. As Barry approached, he changed course and charged at the Reverse-Flash, who moved to avoid the Scarlet Speedster, the two of them racing around each other, exchanging blows.

“Enough!” Savitar called, before a boom was heard and Kara re-appeared, firing off a beam of heat vision into Savitar’s back who fell down to one knee in pain.

“You think you can win, Kara Zor-El?” He mocked her as he unsteadily rose again.

“How do you know who I am?” She called out as Barry and the Reverse-Flash continued to trade blows.

“I have travelled infinite Earth’s. I know all about you, I know your weakness.” Savitar growled as he raced away, Kara hot on his trail. 

 

As Kara chased after Savitar, Barry and the Reverse-Flash battled one another, Barry flinging lightning bolts at him as Thawne dodged around them and ran towards him again, the two trading blows as they punched one another, both determined to defeat the other.

“Why are you here?” Barry asked him. “Why do you work for Savitar?”

“Because he is a means to my ends, Barry Allen.” The Reverse-Flash stated. “He will help me destroy the one I was created from, and once there is only you and I left as speedsters, I will kill you.”

“Created? Who are you?” Barry asked, this other speedster just seemed to get weirder and weirder by the second.

“My name is Thaddeus Thawne.” Thawne stated as Barry looked at him in horror and shock. 

“Thawne?! How?!” Barry cried as Thawne smirked at him.

“I assume you refer to Eobard? No relation, I assure you.” Thawne smiled as Barry looked sick.

“Then why do you have his name, both of them?” Barry called out, if this man was anything to Thawne, and he’d be willing to bet he was, he’d stop him before he could help Savitar do something even worse to Barry than anything Thawne could ever have done.

“It’s a long story, Flash, and honestly? I don’t feel like sharing it.” Thawne smirked as the two of them raced at one another again.

 

As Barry and Thaddeus exchanged blows, Kara raced after Savitar, but the speedster was so many times faster than she was, and before she could even blink, he was there, punching into her side before racing off again. The blows were almost unnoticed due to her invulnerability, but the fact he kept attacking her was losing its novelty. Kara floated further into the air, out of the reach of Savitar, and began to use her heat vision and freeze breath on the surrounding area, knowing if Savitar came back for another pass, he’d be hit by one of them.

As she unleashed another flurry of sheer cold at the ground below, Savitar flashed onto the scene, becoming caught up in it and slowing down. Kara grinned at the sight and dropped to eye level, before she noticed a shiny black rock in his hands.

“What’s that?” Kara asked, feeling odd as she got closer to it, as if she was being pulled in two separate directions.

“You won’t have a chance to fight against me, Supergirl, when you’ll be too busy fighting yourself.” Savitar promised as he thawed out and raced away, dropping the black rock as he went. Kara felt herself falling as the rock was still in proximity to her, before she realised too late what the object actually was. 

Black Kryptonite.


	15. Savitar and Cadmus V

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara faces off against Kara as Team Flash learn the truth about Thaddeus Thawne.

_From now on I won’t be mentioning directions in regards to cities in this fic, as the geography of Earth-1 makes no sense. Keystone is East of Star/Starling City, Iron Heights is North of that, Central is meant to be on the other side of Keystone from Star so it’s even further East, yet US geography says Star and Central BOTH have to be on the West coast being only 600 miles apart, ergo, impossible._

_I don’t want one chapter massive compared to the others so I will be breaking my word and splitting this into two chapters._

 

“Take care of yourself, Barry.” Sara Lance stated as she kissed his cheek, before the rest of the Legends hugged him and shook his hand. Barry smiled at them, eyes betraying the sadness he felt.

“Guys, I’ll be fine, honestly, I’m just glad I could help you stop Thawne and the others in the Legion.”

“Take care man.” Jax said as Stein smiled at Barry.

“If you ever need to get away from it all, Mr Allen, I’m sure I speak for the whole team when I say we’ll be there.”

Thanking the Legends once more, Barry exited the _Wave Rider_ , seeing 2017 Central City around him, he began walking, the clouds overhead pouring rain down below. As he heard the time ship leaving behind him, he allowed the tears to fall.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered to the sky, to voices that would never respond to him, to ears that would never hear him.

Barry walked through the streets, the rain falling thick and fast around him. As he neared the destination, he looked around for a sign of anyone at all familiar. Seeing nobody, he allowed himself a small, sad smile. He didn’t want to see anybody he knew. Oliver was coming by later on in the day, he knew, but he wanted to get his mind far from here before Oliver arrived. As Barry walked down the street, he walked into the cemetery, moving as quickly as he could without his powers to two particular graves, walking past his mother and his father, Barry would visit them later, for now, he had specific people to visit.

Barry looked down at the gravestones before him, tears falling freely and fast. He was too late, he couldn’t save them, and he couldn’t save any of them. As he looked at the grave, yearning for some miracle, to bring them back to him, he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around, he saw Oliver’s hand.

“Ollie..” Barry started.

“Barry, you can’t blame yourself for what happened. You had no idea what Thawne’s plan was, and even if you did, how could you have stopped him?”

“But they’re gone because of me!” Barry choked, eyes stinging as he looked at his friend in despair.

“I’ve heard a popular quote since coming back, Barry. Those we love, never truly leave us.”

Barry sniffed as he took in Oliver’s words, they may be gone, but they’d always be there in Barry’s heart, they all would, all of them he’d lost would. He’d find a way to make himself worthy of their sacrifice.

“How do we move on from here though, Ollie? The team….everyone….” Barry trailed off.

“We move on together Barry. We fight for those we’ve lost, we prevail for them and we make sure that they didn’t sacrifice themselves in vain.”

“Thanks Oliver, I think I really needed that.”

“What are friends for? So, is this why you vanished on the _Wave Rider?_ ”

 

_Three months earlier…._

“Hello, Kara.” Kara looked in shock as she rose unsteadily to her feet to see…herself.

“Oh Rao.” Kara said as she looked upon her doppelganger. Kal had told her how this had happened to him once, when Lex had exposed him to Black Kryptonite. It was basically all of her evil thoughts and feelings, the only way to beat it was to stab it with the Black Kryptonite, and it’d then revert back inside her.

“Why do you bother fighting? This isn’t our fight and you know it.” The evil Kara stated. “We could be back on our world, showing why we are the superior race. Or is that why you’re here? With no Kryptonite, nobody could stop you, you could be a God in this universe.” She smirked as Kara looked at her in shock. She’d _never_ want anyone to worship her like that, she wasn’t a tyrant.

“We’re the good guys here!” Kara protested as her other self sneered at her. “We help the people of Earth, all Earth’s, because that’s what we are! We’re heroes!”

“Heroes are boring.” Her mirror self scoffed. “So much more fun to look out for ourselves. You know we have too, don’t you? Because Earth should worship us, not govern us. Kal wouldn’t understand, he’s never been alone here, but we have. We can only rely on ourselves.”

“You know that’s not true! We have friends, family, people who love us and we love them!” Kara yelled at her other self, she didn’t want to hear the lies from its mouth, because it wasn’t her, it wasn’t even a real thing. It was an it.

“Barry wouldn’t say that.” The Dark Kara stated and Kara froze. Seeing this, her evil self allowed herself a wide grin. “You know Barry has done horrible things, he reset the timeline and ruined loads of his friend’s lives, and you know why? Because he understands that those with power, real power, should use it.”

“Barry doesn’t think that at all!” Kara cried. She wouldn’t let Barry be dragged into this, nor would she allow herself to even entertain the thought that Barry could have a bad bone in his body. Barry was Barry. End of story.

“Oh doesn’t he? You know he wishes he had your power, don’t you? With your power, he could do anything, save anyone. Why wouldn’t he? Why don’t you?” The other Kara taunted, watching as Kara looked floored. Why shouldn’t she dictate who lives and who dies? She had the powers of a God and should be treated as one.

“He really doesn’t. He knows my powers can be a burden sometimes, and he knows he’d never try to change the timeline like he did again. Neither he nor I would ever want to be Gods!” Kara shouted as her other self looked shocked. Who would think her good self could have a streak of stubborn determination?

“Well, if I can’t convince you that we deserve to rule over these pathetic creatures, I’ll have to remove you.” The Dark Kara smiled as she rose into the air, Kara fixed her with a glare and also rose into the air, she wouldn’t let this imposter ruin her name or commit crimes on this world. She’d stop her.

As Kara rushed through the air, she wondered what it would take to stop her evil doppelganger. No matter how fast she flew, the dark her was just as fast, whenever she got ready to use her heat vision or freeze breath, the other flew down towards the streets, knowing Kara wouldn’t risk hurting citizens to stop her, as she laughed at Kara’s hesitance, she fired heat vision beams everywhere, causing buildings to fall, cars to crash and people to scream, Kara did all she could to stop the destruction, using her breath to cool off the fires, but every time she did, her other self got further away and she had to duck as heat vision was occasionally fired at her as well.

‘How do I stop her?’ Kara asked herself, she wasn’t like this other version, she had morals and standards and that put her on the back foot in this fight. She wouldn’t risk civilians, the other version of her would happily kill indiscriminately to win. The fight continued throughout the sky, the other Kara attacking whomever she pleased and Kara trying to protect the innocent and stop her doppelganger without causing any damage to the people or property.

As Kara ducked around another blast of heat vision, an idea came to her.

“Hey, Kara!” She yelled at the Dark Kara. “Bet you can’t catch me!” She yelled, racing back towards where she had fought Savitar, and where a piece of Black Kryptonite was waiting on the floor for her.

She flew as fast and as hard as she could towards it, noticing with a smile that the twisted version of herself was following, as evidenced by the heat vision that kept flying around her. As Kara landed on the floor, she quickly dodged another attack before her doppelganger fell out of the sky with a hard crash. This is what Kara had hoped would happen. Solar flare. With her enemy exhausted and powerless, Kara moved over to her and easily pinned down her evil self with one hand.

“Rao, forgive me.” She begged before plunging the Black Kryptonite into the other Kara, the other Kara began to flail and scream beneath her as energy engulfed both Kara’s, but Kara held firm and held her down until the energy dissipated and the evil Kara was gone. Throwing the Black Kryptonite as far as possible, Kara got to her feet and took flight again. It was time to find the others, in the heat of battle, they seemed to have moved away. She only hoped she’d be fast enough to stop whatever Savitar was doing.

Barry and Thawne continued to trade punches after Kara and Savitar had vanished, Barry quickly gaining the upper hand in the fight.

“It’s over, Thawne. Give it up!” Barry called out as Thawne chuckled to himself.

“You think I’m going to give up, Flash? You and all you stand for must be burnt away before this is over. Savitar will deliver the means and when this ends, I will stand alone, a God amongst men.”

“You’re insane.” Barry spat at him, shocked that Thawne thought he could trust Savitar or become a god in his own right. Whatever Thawne was planning with Savitar, it wouldn’t be good.

“Insanity is a tool used by the weak to try and limit the strong, Flash. I am better than you, than any of you, in every way imaginable. I am the future, I am a God and I will rule over all.” Thawne spat as they continued to dance around each other, before Barry delivered an uppercut to Thawne, knocking him to the ground.

“Not today you won’t, you maniac.” Barry growled as he dragged Thawne up, flashing away to S.T.A.R to put the speedster in the pipeline. As he arrived at S.T.A.R he saw Kara floating down to meet him.

“Hey, what happened?” Barry asked, seeing her looking a little out of sorts.

“Savitar had some Black Kryptonite.” Kara said with a sigh as she looked Barry over, the man had a few bruises and cuts, but he should be fine.

“Black Kryptonite?”

“Kryptonite is our only weakness, as you know, radioactive chunks of Krypton that landed on Earth. It comes in different colours and each colour has different properties. The usual green weakens us, black splits us up into two entities, one good, one evil. I had to fight an evil version of myself.”

“Oh God, are you ok, Kara?” Barry fixed her with a look of concern. It was obvious she’d won the fight, but fighting yourself, that had to be rough.

“I’ll be fine.” Kara stated a bit too bluntly for Barry’s liking. “I want to know how Savitar got hold of Kryptonite.”

“He’s travelled universes before.” Barry supplied. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d visited Earth-38 along the way and stolen some.”

“If that’s true, then I’m not sure what I’ll do if he has some of the other types, he could seriously weaken me or worse.” Kara frowned. She hated the idea that one of her enemies could get the drop on her, but Savitar was faster, if she didn’t surprise him, and if he had Kryptonite, it wouldn’t even be a fight, she’d be tossed aside by Savitar.

“All we can do is work together. Now we have Thawne, we can find out more about what Savitar is doing, and hopefully stop it.” Barry smiled. The night looked dark right now, but Barry knew they’d win in the end.

They walked inside to go and interrogate Thawne, seeing Cisco, Caitlin, Iris, and Joe. Wally was laid up on one of the medical beds, with Iris holding his hand and Caitlin working on him.

“Are you ok, Wally?” Kara asked as he smiled at her.

“I’ll be good.” He smiled as Iris frowned.

“I don’t want you going out there again anytime soon, Wally.” Iris scolded.

Wally frowned at her. “I’ll be fine, Iris.”

“Well you’re my little brother and its upto me to worry about you.” Iris stated firmly, glaring at Barry as if it was his fault that Wally wanted to be a hero, which in some small way, it probably was.

“Iris, just back off. We need to focus more on keeping you safe anyway.” Wally replied, still frowning at her.

“I’ll be fine, Wally.”

“Iris, Barry saw you die, it’s only a few weeks until the date he saw. We need to make sure you’ll be safe.” Wally protested.

“Where’s HR?” Barry called out, wanting to avoid this awkward talk that Wally and Iris were having with one another, Caitlin flashed him a grateful smile as she hurried over to where Barry and Kara were standing.

“We’ve not seen him in a few hours, could you go have a look for him actually?” Caitlin asked as the two of them headed off to go explore S.T.A.R. They knew HR wouldn’t have left the labs, so he had to be there somewhere. They explored the entire facility and couldn’t find anything, until they came to his room.

They knocked on his door and hearing no answer, they opened it and ventured inside carefully. Inside was the usual clutter of someone in their room, but as Barry walked past the bed he accidentally knocked into it, moving it easily. Intrigued by how easily it moved, Barry looked at Kara.

“Can you use your vision on the bed?” He asked, Kara nodded and looked.

“There’s a secret hatch under the bed.” She stated as Barry pushed the bed aside, opening the hatch underneath. Climbing down, he came into another room.

“I don’t remember seeing this on the S.T.A.R blueprints.”

“We’re not HR Wells though, he probably knows them better than you do, especially if S.T.A.R is the same on his Earth as well.”

“But why would he need this?” Barry asked as the lights came on and he gasped. The room was covered in articles about the Flash, some of them from Earth-19 even. In the back of the room there was a stand with a green suit on it. A familiar green suit.

“Oh Rao….” Kara trailed off as she looked at the suit. “Barry….”

“He’s the Reverse Flash.” Barry stated harshly, fixing the suit with a look of hatred. “He’s Thaddeus Thawne.”

As Barry processed the revelation and felt the anger building yup further and further within him, he was reminded of a line Savitar had said to him.

“ _One shall betray you…” (As soon as Savitar called HR “The Fake Wells” I thought ‘Is he really Harrison Wells? Is it another Reverse-Flash thing?’)_

“Barry, we have to tell the others.” Kara stated, breaking Barry out of his inner brooding.

“Yeah, I know.” He said, more harshly than he meant too when replying to Kara, but the rage and anger was still bubbling with him. He had to talk to Thawne, and find out why he was doing this, and soon.

They rushed back to the Cortex to find the others still stood around.

“Did you find HR?” Cisco asked as they came in, before falling silent at the look of anger on Barry’s face.

“We fell for the same trick as we did with Eobard.” Barry spat.

“What’s happened?” Joe asked, seeing his foster son’s anger.

“HR Wells is Thaddeus Thawne. He played us.” Barry growled.

“What?” Joe asked, reaching for his sidearm.

“Are you sure about this, Barry?” Caitlin asked, HR was an odd person, but he’d become a friend over the past few months, working hard to help the team.

“We saw the suit and the newspaper clippings in a chamber under his bed.” Kara stated as everyone turned to look at her. “He’s definitely the Reverse-Flash.”

Everyone looked in shock at the revelation. HR was Thawne? Who could they trust if every Harrison Wells they met was a villain out to get them?

“I say we go talk to him, find out why and what his plan with Savitar is.” Cisco said to nods from the others. It was time they learnt what was going on and how to stop Savitar before it was too late.

The group headed down to the pipeline to see Thawne sat there, smirking as they approached his cage.

“So, what can I do you for this fine day?” He smirked as the group looked at him with betrayal and anger in their eyes.

“Give it up, Thawne. We know you’re HR.” Caitlin supplied.

“I wondered how long it would take, it was painful to pretend to be an idiot, I can’t believe you bought it, I mean, word is bond? What kind of moron speaks like that?” Thawne sniped at her.

“How could you? We trusted you!” Cisco yelled at him.

“From what I’ve seen, you’ve fallen for this a number of times, it’ll make you learn, don’t give away your trust so easily.” Thawne smirked at him. “As to why? That’s easy. I needed your trust to keep you off the scent whilst I went about my business with Savitar, but it’s too late to stop it now. Savitar will rupture the speed force and merge with it, and once that happens, I will be free to end all the other worlds and become a God, once I destroy the Flash.” Thawne gloated as the rest looked in horror at his plan.

“You’ll never achieve it, ever.” Barry spat as Kara looked horrified that Thawne wanted to destroy all the other worlds, including hers.

“Oh won’t I, Barry? Tell me, how will you stop Savitar? Last time you got lucky, and this time, you don’t even know where the Philosopher’s Stone is, how do you hope to contain Lord Savitar? He will tear you apart with ease.” Thawne laughed before Cisco shut off the opening, hiding Thawne once more from view and blocking the sounds of him from the others.

“Now what do we do?” Joe asked, worried that there would be no way to stop this maniac. Savitar had tried to take his sons from him and Barry said he tries to take his daughter from him, Joe would not stop until Savitar was a distant memory and everyone he loved was safe.

“For now, what can we do? Thawne is captured and Savitar has vanished.” Cisco said. “Usually Savitar lays low for a while, so we’ve got nothing we can do now but wait him out.”

“If that’s the case, I need to head back to my world for now.” Kara stated as the rest looked to her. Taking the extrapolator from her pocket she continued “The last time I was here ended up being two months on my Earth, I can’t leave National City for that long again, CADMUS got through the net with me gone and I can’t let them harm the people I love.”

“I’m sorry, Kara, I should have told you about the time flow.” Barry said, rubbing his head sheepishly.

“It’s fine, Barry.” She smiled at him, typical Barry, always taking on the blame for everything. She was sure it wouldn’t have been that long this time, she just needed to hurry back to stop them.

“If you’re going back, I’m coming too.” Barry suddenly announced, as the rest looked at him in shock.

“Barry, we need you here.” Joe stated.

“Why would you go, Barry?” Caitlin asked.

“Because Savitar won’t come back for a while and we know it, I can help Kara stop these guys quickly, I know it.” Barry smiled at Kara as she looked at him in shock. Why would Barry come back with her, risk missing out on stopping Savitar, just for her?

“Barry, I can’t let you do that.” Kara firmly argued.

“Kara, either we’re both going, or neither of us. Savitar won’t come back anytime too soon, and you know you can use all the help you can get, even Supers need help from time to time.” Barry winked at her as she blushed under his gaze.

“Fine, you can come, but you’re not staying long, you need to get back here.” Kara stated as the rest looked in shock at the two. How could they leave now? Kara, maybe, but how could Barry abandon them when Savitar was still out there?

Seeing their faces, Barry turned to the rest of them.

“Guys, I’ll be fine, I promise, I won’t be long, but I owe Kara one now, we’ll be back before you know it and when we do get back, Savitar will be going down.” Barry affirmed before taking Kara’s dimensional extrapolator from her hands, pressing the button and opening a portal to Earth-38. Before anyone could react, he raced through, pulling Kara through with him, the portal closing hurriedly behind them.

As Barry and Kara landed back on Earth-38, Kara checked her phone, seeing no new messages or calls, she quickly decided to call Alex.

“Hey, Alex, is everything ok?”

“Yeah, Kara, why wouldn’t it be?” Alex responded, confused by the question.

“Sorry I was gone so long.” Kara started before Alex cut her off.

“Gone so long? You apologised for that already Kara, remember? Are you ok?” Alex asked.

Kara looked confused at the question, didn’t Alex notice she was missing? Then she noticed the date on her phone. She’d been gone mere seconds.

“It’s alright.” Kara stated, bidding Alex farewell and hanging up. Turning to Barry she fired off a quick smile.

“Well, looks like it’s been no time at all, should we head to the DEO?”

“Aren’t you busy at CatCo?” Barry asked.

“Not really, I’ll just tell James that you’re here and he’ll understand.” Kara hurried off, she didn’t want to waste any time with Barry here, especially when he needed to get back to his own Earth as soon as possible.

“James? Why not Cat Grant?” Barry asked, confused.

“Oh, Ms Grant went on a sabbatical, James is now the interim head of CatCo.” Kara confirmed.

“Oh, well congratulations to him at least.” Barry chuckled,

“I’ll just text him and tell him that you’re back and an emergency came up and we’ll head to the DEO, see if we can help anywhere, if Cadmus has shown back up, how we can stop them.” Kara smiled. Things hadn’t been the best recently, with Cadmus back on the streets, but with Barry here, she knew it’d be ok and they would win against all odds, she just knew it.

_Next time: Team Supergirl and the Flash vs CADMUS and Team Flash and Supergirl take on Savitar._


	16. Savitar and Cadmus VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Supergirl and The Flash vs Cadmus and Team Flash and Supergirl vs Savitar as the prophecy comes true...

 “Start at the beginning, Barry.” The words of Oliver resounded within his head. Barry couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but stare at his friend, thinking about the graves once again.

Oh God, the graves. Barry couldn’t get the imagery out of his head. It was all his fault, had he not thought he was the best, if he hadn’t thought he was untouchable, if he hadn’t let his rage consume him, then Flashpoint would never have happened and all of this would never had happened. It was all over now, though.

They were gone, the team was in pieces, and Barry felt dead inside. It had been months since their deaths, he’d been with the Legends, helping them to stop the Legion of Doom, but deep down he knew it was just a respite. Now that he was back, he felt the guilt crushing him once again. He had caused their deaths, not Thawne, not Savitar, Barry did it.  How could he live with himself, knowing all of that?

“Oliver, you know I can’t.” Barry started, looking hopelessly around, anything to give him the opportunity to not revisit that day, if he could go his entire life without revisiting that day, it would be too soon.

“Barry, please.” Oliver looked at his friend in sadness. He knew what Barry was going through, Oliver better than anyone, with the exception of possibly Kara, knew what loss and grief was like, and knew Barry would need to talk about it.

Barry sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get out of this, maybe if he explained what had happened, just this once, he could move through the guilt, or at least be blamed for it, as he rightfully believed he should be. “Ok, Oliver, it began like this…”

 

_Three Months Earlier…_

“Cisco! Where are we on calling Barry back here?!” Caitlin yelled out, panic gripping her as she waited for Cisco’s reply.

“I’m working on it!” Cisco roared down the comms back at her, he was working as hard as he could to re-establish a connection to Earth-38, they needed Barry back and they needed him back now! How could they have let Savitar get the jump on them? They’d lost the interdimensional extrapolator and until Cisco could get a hold of Barry, they were without the Flash.

“Wally can’t hold off Savitar forever, he’s already losing badly!” Caitlin replied, fearful for her friend. Wally was no match for Savitar, especially not alone, if Savitar got to the cortex and opened the pipeline, Thawne would be free to join him and they’d have no choice but to run or die.

“Caitlin!” Wally’s voice came through the comms before it fell deathly silent, Caitlin watching in horror as Wally was thrown into the cortex and smashed against the far wall, before she could even register what was happening, Caitlin felt herself fly through the air as well and crash into the whiteboard, as she fell to the floor with a groan, she heard alarms sounding as the pipeline was opened. A blur of light and suddenly Thawne was stood before her, the limp form of Cisco in his hand, before Thawne slammed Cisco into the wall and he slumped down to where Wally lay, both of them motionless.

“Well it looks like our work here is done. I think we’ll leave Kid Flash and Vibe’s bodies for the Flash to find.” He gloated before punching Caitlin in the face, as she felt the darkness claiming her, she only had one final thought.

‘Where are you, Barry and Kara?’

 

On Earth-38, Barry and Kara raced one another through the streets towards the DEO, Barry lagging behind slightly so that Kara could show him the way to their new offices in the centre of the city. As they both arrived they were greeted by Alex and Hank, as Barry flashed in behind Kara, Kara grinned at him.

“I guess I’m the fastest, Scarlet Speedster.”

“I let you win, Girl of Steel.” Barry grinned back at her before Alex let out a cough, drawing the twos attention to her.

“Kara, who is this?” Alex asked, both her and Hank eyeing Barry suspiciously.

“Oh sorry, I forgot you guys haven’t met. Alex, Hank, this is Barry Allen, AKA The Flash.” Kara introduced as Barry smiled at them both.

“It’s great to finally meet you two, Kara’s told me all about you.” Barry smiled as Alex and Hank both glared at him.

“Kara has told us a bit about you too Mr Allen, and if her stories are true, I want to know what sort of trouble you’re putting my agent in.” Hank warned him as Barry gulped and Kara frowned.

“Hank, be nice to Barry.” Kara admonished him as Alex scowled.

“Kara, you said yourself he’s got a nutcase after him called Savitar, we need to keep people safe.” Alex reprimanded her sister.

“Don’t worry, Alex, it’ll be fine. Barry volunteered to help us with our Cadmus problem, since I’ve been helping him with his Savitar issue.” Kara stated as Alex increased her frown.

“When have you been helping Barry with that?” She asked, Kara had said she’d left before helping, and she hadn’t been back to Barry’s Earth for months, had she? Come to think of it, why was Barry here, now?

“Erm, I may have popped over earlier today as I got a call for help, and I may have had a run-in with Black Kryptonite.” Kara admitted as Alex looked her over.

“Sun beds, now.” She ordered as Kara looked shocked.

“Alex, I’m fine!” Kara protested.

“I don’t care, I want you checked out, I’m sure Hank agrees with me, who knows what the Black Kryptonite could have done to you.” Alex said as Hank nodded his agreement. Let Alex get Kara checked out, it was time he had a little chat with their dimension hopping associate, determine his intentions, assess his risk and warn him against hopping dimensions whenever the whim took hold of him.

As Alex dragged Kara off into the DEO towards the medical area, Hank gestured for Barry to follow him, gulping slightly at the thought of being left with the stern man, Barry followed dutifully behind. As Barry was led further into the bowels of the DEO he wondered, oddly, if he’d ever see the light of day again, or if Hank was going to dissect him to see how speedsters worked. As Hank approached an office door, he gestured for Barry to follow him inside and take a seat, with a nervous sweat, Barry sat down as Hank sat down facing him from across his desk.

“So, tell me about yourself, Mr Allen.” Hank started, fixing Barry with a glare. Barry cleared his throat before he began to answer.

“Well, I’m twenty seven years old, I used to be a CSI with the Central City police department, and I’m, as you know, The Flash, fastest man alive, etc.” Barry said, staring Hank down. He was here as a guest, not a prisoner, and he wouldn’t let Hank make him feel like one.

“Used to be?” Hank picked up on Barry’s lack of a current job, why was this?

“Erm, yeah, I was kinda blackmailed by a former co-worker, I quit my job, he doesn’t reveal one of my friends tried to kill him when she wasn’t well. I wasn’t going to let my friend suffer unduly, it wasn’t her fault.” Barry explained to Hank who just looked at him blankly.

“Your friend tried to kill a man and you defended her? You know she could have been a threat, she could have even harmed Kara when she went to your Earth.” Hank said. He could see Barry’s reasoning, but if this friend of his was dangerous, why didn’t Barry try to take her down himself, to save lives?

“She wasn’t herself, she was scared and we ended up helping her, if any of my friends were ever in the same position, I’d do anything to save them.” Barry defiantly stated as he looked Hank in the eyes. He’d do anything for those he cared about and he wouldn’t let this man intimidate him into feeling like anything less. “And NOBODY will hurt Kara whilst I’m there.” Barry growled, swearing it to himself and to Hank, who gave a small smile and nodded at Barry.

“I think I’ve learnt all I need too about you for now, Mr Allen. Anything I can do to help, just ask.” Hank stated, gesturing to the door for Barry to leave and find Kara.

Barry nodded and left, wondering if he should ask about Hank’s relationship to Kara and why he wanted to interrogate him now of all times, but thought better on it, there would be time for all of that later. For now he had to make sure Kara was alright, and get the grilling he knew would be coming from Kara’s sister as well.

 

“What were you thinking, Kara?” Alex asked as she berated her sister, who was still lying under the sun lamps. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her, but Alex wasn’t taking any chances where Kara was concerned. She’d stay there until she was certain her sister wasn’t suffering due to the Black Kryptonite or any after effects.

“Barry needed my help, Alex, what would you do?” Kara stubbornly refuted, she wouldn’t accept Alex trying to blame her for anything to do with helping Barry. They needed to stop these threats to their lives, their cities and their worlds, be it from Cadmus or Savitar.

“I get that, Kara, but can you think about it next time! You didn’t know that Black Kryptonite wouldn’t have any other effects! Anything could have happened to you and we wouldn’t have been able to save you!” Alex cried, wondering why Kara couldn’t see her point. Had something happened to Kara, she wouldn’t have been able to help and she’d have spent the rest of her life blaming herself for letting Kara down.

Kara shook her head at Alex’s words, she understood where Alex was coming from, she really did, but she wasn’t a little kid and she’d proven time and time again she could care for herself, she didn’t need Alex constantly hovering over her shoulder for the slightest mistake.

“I understand, Alex, believe me, I do, and I promise I’ll be more careful next time.” Kara smiled in an attempt to appease her sister. Alex just fixed her with a look of consideration for a moment before smiling, even when she was angry with her sister, she’d melt at Kara’s puppy dog smile.

“So, tell me about this other Earth?” Alex asked, genuinely intrigued by the idea of the multiverse. What pathways were different between their worlds?

“In many ways it was just like ours, just a few different landmarks, a few people on either side didn’t exist either.” Kara explained to Alex.

“Oh really, what sort of changes?”

“There’s no CatCo there, they have a place called S.T.A.R Labs in Central City, a few people like me and you don’t seem to exist there and all of their heroes don’t seem to exist here.” Kara stated. Different dimensions were confusing at the best of times. “They also have different cities, there’s no Metropolis there, San Diego is called Coast City there, a few changes.” Kara said.

“Well I better not learn about any more threats that you’re fighting.” Alex warned her sister before Barry Allen knocked on the door of Alex’ lab.

“I’ll let you two get acquainted.” Kara mumbled before leaving the room, leaving Barry to Alex’s tender mercies.

“Hi, I’m Barry Allen.” Barry stated, offering Alex his hand. She just glared at him. Before she could say anything, there was another knock at the door, and opening the door revealed Winn and Mon-El.

“Barry!” Winn called, going to hug his old friend before Mon-El or Alex could get a word in, Barry happily embraced the nerdy IT guy, he’d missed Winn when he was back on Earth-1, the man would fit in quite well with Felicity and Cisco.

“Hey man.” Barry greeted him. “Why aren’t you with James at CatCo?” Barry asked.

“I work here at the DEO now.” Winn smiled as Mon-El looked in shock.

‘So this is the Barry that Kara kissed? He doesn’t look like much.’ Mon-El sneered.

“Hi, I’m Barry.” Barry introduced himself to Mon-El.

“I’m Mon-El.” The man said to him sharply.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Barry smiled at Alex and Mon-El, both of whom just glared at him. Alex for him outing Kara in danger and taking her from their world, Mon-El as he wanted to be with Kara.

“So, tell us about yourself, Barry.” Alex stated as Winn excused himself to go and find Kara.

“Well, like I told Hank, I’m a former CSI, I’m a superhero known as The Flash on my Earth, and I’m here to help you deal with Cadmus.” Barry stated.

“How can you help us with them?” Mon-El interjected.

“Well I’m a scientist and a superhero, so I’m sure I can help somehow.” Barry frowned. He got the feeling Mon-El didn’t like him for some reason.

 “Well we’ve got plenty of both of them.” Mon-El stated shortly. Alex frowned at his actions and smiled at Barry, any help would be appreciated after all, especially if they wanted to take down Cadmus and hopefully rescue Jeremiah.

“I’ll show you where you can work, Barry. I know when the time comes for us to take the fight to Cadmus, you’ll be more than welcome to help us take them down.” Alex said as she left the lab with Barry, throwing one last frown over her shoulder at Mon-El. It was obvious, even to Alex, that Kara was enamoured by Barry and it seemed like Barry was also engrossed by Kara as well, Mon-El had to accept that Kara would be happy with Barry and move on. Alex may be angry that Barry had risked Kara’s life, but if they loved one another, she would hold her tongue. If Barry ever harmed Kara though, Alex swore to herself, they’d never find his body.

Barry went down into the labs and began to work with Winn and Alex on a way to track down Cadmus, as Winn explained to Barry about Cyborg Superman.

“A man made mostly of metal and robotics?” Barry asked.

“Yeah, his strength equals Kara’s as well, so his punches will probably kill us mere mortals.” Winn joked.

“What if we fashioned an EMP grenade?” Barry asked. “Short him out, short out any weapons that Cadmus may have and then we go in, all of us who can fight hand to hand head in and we clean house.” Barry stated.

“How come I didn’t think of that?” Winn asked. “Without his cybernetics, Henshaw will be worthless, and the rest of them we can clean up easily with you, Kara and a few others.” Winn informed Barry.

“We’ll get Hank to sign off on this, but it sounds like a solid plan.” Alex grudgingly agreed.

Hank came down to the labs and agreed with them that the plan was a sound one, with Winn and Barry getting to work on creating the EMP devices, whilst Alex went to track down her sister, who seemed to have vanished when she went to interrogate Barry.

Alex found Kara inside the hologram room, speaking to the hologram of Alura.

“What do I do, mother?” Kara asked her.

“You can only do as your heart suggests.” The Alura AI prompted, causing Kara to blush.

“But he lives on another Earth!” Kara protested.

“There is only Earth.” Alura’s AI stated, not understanding the idea of the multiverse. Her words though, had a different meaning to Kara.

“There is only one Earth, if we wish it, Barry and I can find a way, I just know it.” Kara said, smiling at the AI before switching it off, she turned to exit and saw Alex standing there, smiling at her.

“Oh, hey Alex.” Kara said.

“Kara, how are you?”

“What do you mean?” Kara blushed.

“You’ve been in several near death fights in recent months and you’re currently grinning like an idiot?” Alex teased her sister. “You know if you need someone to talk too, I’m always here, right?”

“I know Alex, and I appreciate it, but I can take care of myself.” Kara huffed as Alex flashed a teasing smile at her sister.

“So Barry and Winn are working on a way to take down Hank Henshaw, and once we’ve got that, and we’ve found Cadmus’ new base of operations, we’ll take them down.” Alex told her sister. “So, how long have you and Barry been dating?”

“I-We’re not dating.” Kara protested with a heavy blush that caused Alex’s teasing smile to widen a fraction.

“Oh, so he hasn’t asked you yet?” Alex grinned as Kara flushed.

“No, not yet.” She admitted, frowning slightly.

“Give it time, Kara. He will do.” Alex promised. He had better not hurt her sister, or else.

“We think we have something!” Came Barry’s voice through Alex’s comms, and the two Danvers sisters headed back to the lab to find Winn working on a device as Barry poured over the computers.

“We’ll have some EMP grenades ready in about an hour.” Winn informed them as they arrived. “We’ve also found a former Luthor house, owned by Lillian, outside of the city. Looking at satellite images of it, two days ago it was abandoned, as it had been for the past few years. Today, however…” Winn trailed off as he showed the two of them the images, the house was full of life, people coming and going, a few trucks parked outside, one of which was lined with lead.

“I think we’ve got them, and it looks like they’ve probably got Kryptonite with them.” Winn stated.

“So, what’s the plan?” Barry asked with a wink to Kara who blushed at it.

“We move in, draw them out, we hit them with the EMP, once Henshaw is down, we pull back Kara and Barry and I will take point with super speed and experience, we take them all down, arrest Lillian and anyone else there, and then we raid the house and find out anything Cadmus related.”

“Sounds good, do we have an idea of how many of them are in there?” Barry asked.

“Satellite images show there should be anywhere between 5 and 15 of them.” Winn supplied. “We’ve got a confirmed sighting of Lillian and Hank Henshaw as well.”

“Then let’s go get them.” Kara said.

Kara, Alex, Barry and Mon-El as well as several of the field agents began to head towards the DEO trucks, it was time to end this once and for all. Cadmus would be shut down and Lillian and Hank apprehended by days end.

Kara and Barry would by flying/running accordingly whilst everyone else headed there in the vans. J’onn would hang behind in case this was a trap as they believed it may be, and Cadmus tried to assault the DEO to gather weapons, intel or recruits for their fight against Supergirl and her friends.

 Barry and Kara arrived at the Luthor house to case the place, it would be a few minutes until the DEO trucks arrived, and Barry had some of the EMP grenades with him. His orders were clear, if he had a shot, take Henshaw out early.

“What’s your status?” Alex asked the two of them over their comms.

“We’re here, there is movement, I spot ten people, but I can hear eleven heartbeats. Henshaw is definitely in there, lined with lead.” Kara confirmed over the comms. “Lillian is here as well.”

“Alright, Allen, you’re up, rush in, EMP blasts, take them down.” Alex stated through comms as Barry flashed Kara a smile.

“I’ll be back in a minute.” Barry promised Kara before zipping away towards the Luthor household, rushing into the house, he threw EMP grenades, disabling the comms of the Cadmus agents, and hearing a roar of defiant anger, he heard a crash from the next room as something heavy fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Barry rushed back out of the building towards where Kara was waiting for him, the DEO trucks beginning to arrive.

“Henshaw is down and their comms are down too, it’s time.” Barry stated as Kara smiled at him. Finally, Cadmus would be defeated.

“Let’s move, people!” Alex called out as the agents began to pour from their trucks and head towards the Luthor house. Kara could pick up shouting from within as Lillian tried to rally her troops, but with no comms, and their heaviest hitter down for the count, she knew this wouldn’t take long.

The DEO agents entered the house quickly and effectively, the Cadmus agents choosing to surrender rather than face down overwhelming odds. They weren’t getting paid enough to die, even if it was a Luthor leading them. As the DEO agents rounded up the Cadmus agents, Alex moved throughout the house with Barry be her side, Kara and Mon-El remaining outside as backup, Kara due to the possibility of Kryptonite, Mon-El due to his lead allergy.

“Barry, check this room.” Alex gestured as they walked through the upper hallways. The Cadmus agents had been caught downstairs, but Lillian hadn’t been captured, and Kara confirmed that Lillian hadn’t left the house.

Barry cracked the door open and was thankful for his super speed as bullets whizzed towards him from within the room.

“Found her.” Barry called out as Alex came back towards him.

“Right, I’ll take point. Aim to is to capture, but if she can’t be, dead will suffice.” Alex curtly stated as Barry looked in shock. Dead was acceptable? Didn’t they always take them in alive?

“Hang on, don’t we need her alive?” Barry asked.

“We’d prefer it, but you’re not from here, Barry. Lillian and her son, Lex, have killed thousands, put millions at risk, just for a pointless vendetta against Kara and her cousin. Would you like her to have the chance to harm Kara?” Alex asked as she saw Barry’s eyes harden. He’d do anything to keep his loved ones safe, Alex noted. Good.

She pushed open the door to find Lillian in the corner, her gun to her temple.

“You traitors won’t take me, I won’t watch Cadmus fall. If this is to be the end, let there be hellfire.” Lillian grinned as she went to remove something from her pocket. A detonator.

Before Lillian could click the detonator, Barry raced over, disarming the gun from her and taking the detonator from her, flashing away again, he stood next to Alex, gun and detonator in his hands.

“She’s all yours, Agent Danvers.” Barry smirked as Lillian glared at him.

“A metahuman freak.” Lillian spat. “You are also not worthy of living on a planet of humans.” She sneered at Barry as Alex walked over to Lillian, before punching her in the face and cuffing her before she could respond.

“Lillian Luthor, you’re coming to the DEO to answer for your crimes.” Alex said as she lifted Lillian up and dragged her away, Lillian cursing as she was led outside and tossed into one of the DEO trucks.

“Alex.” Kara called as she walked over to her sister, Lillian glaring at the two of them from the back of the truck. As Kara and Alex hugged, Lillian slumped to the floor. It was over. She was powerless, weaponless, Henshaw was dead, her agents had surrendered and Cadmus was gone, its bases raided over the past few months, its remaining files inside the house would no doubt be taken by the DEO, this was the end. She’d be tried for her crimes and the amount of people she’d killed to achieve her aims, and she knew she’d be neighbours with Lex at Stryker’s island for decades to come.

In a way, it was oddly comforting for Lillian Luthor to have lost to Supergirl and her friends like this. At least if she was with her son, she was with her family. That is all Lillian cared about, the Luthor family.

As Kara and Alex broke apart, Alex gave her sister a ‘We need to talk’ look, and walking slightly away from the DEO truck where Lillian was held, the two sisters went to talk.

“So, what now?” Alex asked her sister. She knew Barry would return to his Earth and Kara would willingly follow him if he asked.

“I need to help Barry finish this on his Earth. We need to stop Savitar.” Kara told her sister. She hopefully wouldn’t be gone too long, but she needed her sister to know this, she had to help Barry and she wouldn’t be deterred.

“I know.” Alex admits as she pulls Kara in for another hug.

Kara was shocked that her sister was willing to let her go again without a fight, Alex seemed the most vehement that Kara wouldn’t be universe jumping again anytime soon.

“You’re ok with this?” Kara asked Alex.

“I’m not happy, and if you repeat what I’m about to say, I’ll deny it, but Barry seems worthy of you, as unlikely as I thought that would ever be.” Alex stated. “I know he’d kill to keep you safe, if he had too, and not many people would do that for another.”

Kara smiled as she hugged her sister once more, Barry would do anything for her, and she knew she’d do anything for Barry.

Barry walked over to the two Danvers sisters.

“Now what?” Barry asked with a smile.

“We head back to Earth-1 and we take Savitar down for good.” Kara told Barry, her face determined. Barry smiled. He was glad Kara was willing to come back with him, he knew he needed her help if he wanted to take Savitar down safely.

“Alright, should we tell someone?” Barry asked, before Alex shook her head.

“I’ll handle things here, you’ve both done a great job, and we have enough to take Cadmus down for good now. Go stop your guy, and then Kara come back to me, please.” Alex sighed as she looked at her sister.

“I’ll always come back, Alex.” Kara vowed as she smiled at her sister, Barry flashing Alex a small smile as well before they used the interdimensional extrapolator to open another breach back to Earth-1, and the two of them stepped through it, back to the fight with Savitar.

 

As Barry and Kara stepped through the portal, they walked into S.T.A.R labs to see a warzone. The alarms were blaring, papers were flying everywhere and the two of them could see Wally, Cisco and Caitlin all on the floor, unmoving.

“Guys!” Barry yelled as he raced over, grabbing them and rushing them over to the beds. He knew he couldn’t look after all of them himself, so thinking quick, he knew what to do.

“Kara, can you watch them? I’ve got some people to pick up.” Barry said, Kara nodding before he rushed away. Barry returned a few moments later with Julian in tow.

“What am I doing here, Allen?” Julian asked.

“I need your help, Julian, you have some medical background, don’t you?”

“Not much more than basic first aid.” Julian grumbled.

“That’ll have to do for now, can you please look after them?” Barry asked before he rushed away once more, Julian heading over to check the others, asking Kara to assist him, Kara helped him set the three of them up more safely, before she headed over to the cortex to check the computers, perhaps there was something that would show what happened to everyone.

Barry appeared once more with Joe in tow, and then flashed off again, brining Iris with him.

“What’s going on, Barry?” Joe asked as Iris saw Wally on the bed.

“Wally!” Iris cried as she rushed over to her brother.

“I don’t know.” Barry admitted to Joe.

 “I think Savitar may have paid a visit.” Kara stated.

“How come?” Joe asked her.

“Because I checked the computers, and Thawne isn’t in his cell anymore.” Kara said as she brought up the security feed from the pipeline, and Thawne’s vacant cell.

“We need help, and fast.” Barry said as Joe went to help Iris and Julian with looking after the others.

“How will we do that?” Kara asked.

“We need to get Cisco up, and get him to open a breach.” Barry stated. “An old friend of ours will likely be willing to help.”

Just then, they heard a groan from Cisco’s bed as the man opened his eyes.

“What happened?”

“Cisco, it’s Barry!” Barry said as he came over to him.

“Barry? What happened?”

“We’re not sure man, we were hoping you could tell us.” Barry sighed.

“I remember alarms, then we were attacked…Savitar! He was here! He took Thawne and Thawne attacked us! Did you get him?” Cisco asked.

“I’m sorry, Cisco, when we got back, they were already long gone.” Barry said as he offered his hand to Cisco, who was trying to get up to check the computers.

“Are you sure you should be getting up, Cisco?” Barry asked his friend.

“I need to do this, Barry, I need to make sure the pipeline is still secure and I need to make sure we’re ready in case they come after us again.” Cisco bluntly stated, eyes burning with anger at what Thawne and Savitar had done, attacking them.

Barry helped Cisco to his feet, the man unsteadily shaking. Barry held his friend up and checked over Cisco, making sure the man was alright. He had a request for Cisco, as he’d thought of a plan to take down Savitar himself, but he would need some help to implement it.

“Cisco, I need you to open a breach for me. There’s an old friend who I know will be willing to join in this fight.”

“Alright, Barry. Where do you need me to send you?” Cisco stated, as he steadied himself. It still hurt from where Thawne had blasted him into the wall, but he knew he needed to focus to help Barry take down Savitar and Thawne.

“Earth-3.”

 

Barry arrived on Earth-3 to see a tornado in the distance and a brief flash of light around it. Running off towards the commotion he saw Jay Garrick fighting against Weather Wizard.

‘Mark Mardon here as well?’ Barry asked himself as he saw Mark blast Jay with a lightning bolt.

“Give up Flash and I’ll make your death quick!” Mardon called as Jay rose to his feet.

“Hey Sparky!” Barry yelled suddenly, as he raced towards Mardon, Mardon saw the flash of lightning coming and looked towards Barry in shock.

“TWO FLASHES?!” He roared, summoning a tornado to himself.

Barry grinned despite it all, he knew how to handle a tornado. Racing around Mardon as fast as possible in reverse of his tornado, he saw the tornado begin to dissipate and Mardon look at Barry in shock.

“How did you do that?” He called out to the newly arrived speedster before Barry rushed over and delivered an uppercut to Mardon, knocking the evil meta out.

“Guess that settles that.” Barry said to himself as he walked over to Jay, who was watching the battle unfold.

“I would have had that handled, Barry.” Jay informed him with a smile. It was always nice to see Barry, especially since Barry have saved his bacon multiple times now. “It’s good to see you, Flash, I take it this isn’t a social call however?” Jay asked.

“No, Savitar has taken Iris and has been attacking my world whilst I was on another Earth helping them with a problem. The thing is, I’m not sure I can beat him, even with the help I currently have. I’ve got a plan, but its risky and I need your help.”

“Whatever, whenever, wherever.” Jay affirmed. He owed his life to Barry, he’d help the man. There was also another reason he had wanted to see Barry, he had news for the other Flash and a request.

Barry and Jay rushed Mardon off to the CCPD before getting ready to head back once again to Earth-1, it was time to end this, it was time to take Savitar down for good.

Everyone exchanged welcomes as Jay and Barry met up with them all in the cortex.

“So, Savitar is back, is he?” Jay asked as he was brought upto speed.

“You must be Jay, Hi, I’m Kara.” Kara smiled at Jay as she offered her hand towards him. Jay smiled at her and took in, giving it a firm handshake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kara, I’m afraid I haven’t been told anything about you.” Jay apologised as Kara gave Barry a mock glare.

“It’s alright, Jay.” Kara stated.

“Barry, can I speak to you for a minute?” Jay asked, gesturing for the two of them to talk a walk around S.T.A.R. He had something he needed to ask Barry, and it was best he asked him before all of this began.

“Jay, I have something to ask you.” Barry stated before Jay could get out his request.

“What is it, Barry?” Jay asked. He’d ask Barry for his favour after he heard Barry’s request out.

“We have a plan to take down Savitar, but I need you to finish it.” Barry said.

“Alright, what’s the play and how can I help take that metallic monster down?”

“His armour, we know it protects him from the Speed Force. We need to get him out of it.”

“How will we do that though?” Jay asked, wondering how Barry could think they had a chance to force Savitar from it with his speed and strength.

“Savitar has the power to remove the speed from speedsters, absorbing it himself. We let him.”

“What?!” Jay asked, shocked and confused by this statement. “Are you mad?!”

“Far from it.” Barry stated. “If we offer my speed to Savitar, he will retract his armour from his arms to absorb my speed. When he does it, I need you, Jay, to hit us with a bolt of lightning from the speed force. It should send us to the Speed Force, where you can draw upon it, Savitar will be stunned and on an equal playing field. You can defeat him.” Barry finished explaining to Jay, hoping Jay would be willing to help them out.

“But, what about you?” Jay asked.

“We’re not sure, the force of the explosion may kill me.” Barry admitted uneasily. “But I accepted that long ago. If I have to die, I’ll die saving the world.” Barry firmly stated.

“Barry, your plan is insane, yet could work, I admit.” Jay sighed. “But I can’t let you be the one who Savitar draws from.”

“I need to do this!” Barry stated. “I need to atone for my mistakes in Flashpoint and this is the way to stop it, by stopping Savitar.”

“Barry, I have something to tell you though, and something to ask you of my own.” Jay cut in, he wouldn’t allow Barry to wallow in his self-pity and he wouldn’t let Barry throw away his life and his happiness with his friends due to some idiotic sense of guilt. It was time to tell Barry why he needed to speak to him, and why it needed to be him who Savitar took the speed from.

“What’s wrong?” Barry asked, concern on his face. Whatever was so big for Jay, it couldn’t be good news.

“I’ve been diagnosed with cancer.” Jay stated shortly as Barry looked at him in shocked concern.

“Jay…” Barry started before Jay cut him off once again.

“I’ve got weeks, at best.” Jay admitted. “I needed to tell you that for I have a request for you. Once I’m gone, watch over Earth-3 for me, ensure it doesn’t fall to danger, if needed, train up a new speedster to take my place there as the new Flash.” Jay stated.

“But I can’t, I’m not sure if I’ll even make it through this battle.” Barry stated before he realised something. Jay could take his place in the plan, allowing Barry to be the one to battle Savitar within the Speed Force.

 “Jay, are you suggesting what I think you’re saying?” Barry asked him.

“Yes, Barry, I will be the one who Savitar takes the speed from, and it’ll be YOU who stops that monster, once and for all.” Jay affirmed.

“Jay, I can’t ask you to do that.” Barry said, still in shock over Jay’s confession and what he was asking Barry to let him do.

“Barry, I’m finished, either way. The best thing I can do is make sure I help take Savitar down with me. You’ve got a full life ahead of you, kiddo.” Jay stated as Barry had to hold back a sob at his last word. He even sounded like Henry Allen when he said that.

“Let’s do it. Let’s take Savitar down.” Barry vowed as they walked to re-join the others. As they walked into the cortex Barry saw Kara looking pointedly away and suppressed a small smirk, despite the situation. Couldn’t help herself from listening in.

“Kara, can I speak to you for a moment?” Barry asked before gesturing back into the hallway, nodding, Kara followed after Barry as Cisco and Wally went to get Jay ready for the upcoming battle, with Iris and Caitlin checking the cortex computers to try and locate where Thawne and Savitar had ran too. With the Philosopher’s Stone now destroyed because of Kara, Savitar would be free to run whenever he wished. It was risky that it would even destroy him, but now at least he couldn’t escape once they had him. He’d be finished.

“What’s the matter, Barry?” Kara asked as they walked out and down the hall.

“Listen, I want too, no, need to ask you something.” Barry started as he fidgeted, he wasn’t sure quite how to ask this, because if Kara said no, he didn’t know what it’d do to him.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” Barry asked suddenly as Kara’s eyes widened in shock and a blush appeared on her cheeks.

‘Oh Rao.’ Kara thought to herself. She’d wanted Barry to ask her this for some time now, she knew they both liked one another, and she wanted to make this an official relationship. Now he was finally asking her, before she had to take the plunge and ask him herself.

“Yesyesyes!” Kara cried out in happiness as she threw her arms around Barry’s neck and pulled him closer, pressing her lips to his ferociously.

Barry smiled as he melted into the kiss, shoving Kara against the wall as she kept her arms wrapped around his neck. They pressed ever closer into one another as their mouths parted, their tongues battling one another for the control of the embrace, as they kept interlocked in this dance, they heard a cough behind them, and breaking apart sheepishly, they turned around to see Iris stood before them.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll just…go.” Iris stated bluntly before turning and running off, Kara heard a quiet sob as Iris headed off towards the toilets.

“I’ll go speak to her.” Kara stated as she walked away from Barry, a blush still on her face, as Barry walked back into the cortex.

“Iris, are you alright?” Kara asked as she walked into the toilets, seeing Iris wiping her eyes.

“I’m fine, thanks Kara.” She stated.

“Iris, you know you can talk to me.” Kara said, she didn’t want Iris to be upset about her and Barry being together.

“Thanks, Kara, but believe me, I’m fine.” Iris firmly said before she walked out of the bathroom, leaving Kara at a loss of what to do.

Walking back into the cortex Kara caught the end of the plan of attack.

“Right, so we’ve got our plan. We all hit Thawne and Savitar with everything we’ve got, we get Thawne away from Savitar, and we let Savitar close in on Jay, as he goes to steal Jay’s speed, as we know he will because he wants to get fast enough to merge with and control the Speed Force. Once he does that, I’ll hit him with a blast of lightning to destabilise the power transfer, and it should send Savitar and myself into the Speed Force. There, I can channel it as well as he can, I hope. I can take him down there and stop this once and for all.” Barry finished explaining to a few sceptical looks. There were several things left to chance here, and how did they know that Savitar would take Jay’s speed? What if the force of the disruption killed one of them or let Savitar escape?

“It’s not a great plan.” Julian stated.

“But it’s the best we’ve got.” Barry affirmed as the others nodded. It wasn’t perfect, by any stretch, but it was the best they could hope for.

“Do we have a lead on where Savitar and Thawne are holed up?” Kara asked.

“We think we’ve got something, video from an old warehouse down near the waterfront shows Thawne heading inside, we can only assume Savitar is there with him, as videos won’t pick him up.” Caitlin said as she checked over the computers.

“Alright, everyone gear up. It’s time to end this.” Barry stated as Wally, Barry and Jay started to crackle with electricity, Kara rose into the air, and Cisco began to work on opening a portal.

“I’m coming with you.” Caitlin stated, her hands frosting over. “I’m going to help take him down.”

“Are you sure Caitlin?” Barry asked.

“You can stay here and help through the comms.” Cisco supported Barry. They didn’t need Caitlin for this, and didn’t want her to come to any harm.

“Guys, I can control it. I need to be able to control it. We need to stop this.” Caitlin said.

“Alright, well I’ll work on comms from here and keep an eye out.” Julian said as the rest looked over at him. “I want to help, Savitar ruined my life as well, if I can help you take him down, I’ll gladly do it.” Julian stated.

“I’ll go back to the paper and see if I can help anyway from there.” Iris said as Wally and Barry nodded. They wanted Iris nowhere near this, if she was away from this, she couldn’t be harmed by Savitar.

“Alright, well let’s move out.” Barry said as they all headed off. It was time to end this, once and for all.

Barry, Jay, Wally and Kara raced off towards the warehouse where Thawne had been spotted heading into, with Cisco waiting for confirmation of their arrival before he brought himself and Caitlin through. As they arrived they saw a giant painted sign on the front wall.

‘Welcome Flash and friends.’

“Well, that’s not screaming trap or anything.” Wally muttered as Cisco and Caitlin came through a breach to their friends.

“There’s nothing we can do about it, they must have known we’d expect a trap.” Barry stated, they had to push on, no matter what, they had to stop Savitar and Thawne and it had to be today.

“Well let’s go.” Kara said as the six of them walked into the building, Kara using her x-ray vision to look out for traps. Seeing nothing, they moved further into the building until they came to a large open space with dim lighting, in the far corner of the room, Kara saw a shape moving.

“We’ve got someone over there.” She pointed out as the rest of them geared to attack.

Suddenly, slow applause came from the corner they were looking towards.

“Well played, Supergirl.” Thawne chuckled as he walked into the light. Wally’s eyes steeled as he looked upon Thawne, the man was a mentor to him, and he had betrayed them all.

“It’s over, Thawne.” Cisco growled. “I always knew we couldn’t trust you.”

“Where’s Savitar?” Caitlin demanded.

“Oh, He’ll be here soon enough.” Thawne grinned before a flash of white lightning appeared before Wally, Barry, Jay, Thawne and Kara.

“Come to die?” Savitar groaned as he looked at the group of heroes with pure hatred in his eyes.

“If anyone will die today, it’s you.” Wally spat at him.

“Wallace West. So young, so naïve.” Savitar goaded. “I know your futures, remember? One of you shall fall, one of you shall suffer a fate worse than death today.”

“None of us will fall for your lies.” Kara stated. “We know you’re full of it.”

“And you’re not going to hurt anyone else.” Barry promised as he began to draw on the Speed Force, ready to do battle. “It’s time to end this.”

Barry and Wally rushed directly at Savitar, who grinned and seemed content to let the speedsters rush towards their impending doom, as Jay rushed towards Thawne, who was happy to let the older Flash chase him around the warehouse, the two of them exchanging blows whenever Jay got within range of Thawne. Kara rose into the air and rushed towards Savitar herself, releasing a blast of heat vision towards him. Cisco began to fire sonic waves at their two foes to disorientate them with Caitlin frosting her hands over and firing icy blasts towards the two of them as well, hoping to slow them down enough for the others to take care of them.

Savitar swatted Barry and Wally to the side with a grin as the two of them reached the Speed God.

“You think you could stand up against me? I am a God!” Savitar roared as he lifted Wally up in the air with one arm and threw him across the room, Wally slamming into the wall and falling to the floor in a dead faint.

“Wally!” A voice screamed from the door as Iris rushed over towards her fallen brother.

“Iris?!” Kara yelled, looking over to her in shock, what was she doing there?

In her distraction, Savitar grabbed Kara’s cape and swung the Kryptonian around, throwing her through the air and she too crashed into the wall, falling with a groan. Kara unsteadily rose to her feet to see Iris was hunched over Wally’s unmoving form.

“Is he ok?” Kara asked Iris as she began to cry, cradling Wally in her arms. Kara grabbed Wally and Iris and rushed from the room, taking the two of them out into the cool outside air, and laying Wally softly onto the grass, Kars backed up and let Iris grab hold of her brother once again.

“He’s just unconscious.” Iris sniffed as she held onto her brother. “But he shouldn’t be here, he shouldn’t be hurt, we need to help him, we need to do something, anything!” Iris cried out. Wally was hurt and it was all her fault, she hadn’t worked hard enough to stop him from becoming Kid Flash, he was doing all of this because Barry had seen Savitar kill her, it was all her fault!

“Iris, he chose to be here.” Kara reminded her. “Wally is a hero and heroes get hurt sometimes. I know he’s your brother and you want to protect him and that’s admirable, but all we can do is our best to stop the bad guys, and be there to help one another if we get injured in the fight.”

Iris looked at Kara in contemplation, wondering what she should say to her, before Kara turned and flew back into the battle. Iris watched her retreating form before turning her attention back to her brother. She’d make sure he was alright, Wally may want to make sure that Savitar didn’t kill Iris, but Iris would do anything to make sure that Wally wasn’t the one killed in her place.

Jay and Thawne raced around one another, both of them trading blow for blow as they sped around the room, Jay trying to wear down Thaddeus, Thawne attempting to avoid Cisco and Caitlin’s attacks as they passed their location near to the doorway.

“How long do you think you can keep this up, Thawne?” Jay asked as they danced around one another, both narrowly missing.

“As long as I need too, old man.” Thawne sneered, as he closed the gap and delivered a stunning punch to Jay’s side, the man falling to the floor with a groan, the battle had taken its toll on him, and despite getting a few good hits onto Thawne, Jay was definitely the loser of this confrontation.

“And now to end this.” Thawne stated as he knelt down next to Jay, his hand beginning to vibrate as he aimed to snuff Jay Garrick out once and for all.

“Get away from him!” Came a yell and Thawne looked up to see Cisco’s attack coming towards him, barely registering it, Thawne began to move, but was too slow, being thrown across the room by the attack and landing on the other side. As Thawne climbed to his feet, a gust of wind came towards him and suddenly Kara was there, grabbing Thawne and lifting him into the air.

“You will not harm anyone!” Kara cried at him before throwing him to the ground, Thawne landing with a whimper. He unsteadily rose to his feet to see Kara land on the floor, Caitlin was using her powers to place ice over Jay’s wounds, and Cisco was coming towards him. He smiled at Vibe and Supergirl.

“Now this is a challenge. I like it.” Thawne smirked before charging towards the two of them, Cisco blasting sonic waves towards him and creating breaches to try and confuse and trap Thawne, Kara using her freeze breath and heat vision towards him to knock the speedster down.

Thawne easily dodged most of the attacks and ran towards Cisco, knowing his hits would do nothing to Kara, he quickly delivered several punches to Cisco’s stomach, winding the young Metahuman, before racing around him in a tornado of energy.

“Kara, hit him!” Cisco called from within it.

“I could miss and hit you!” Kara cried.

“Just do it!” Caitlin yelled from the side, where she was tending to Jay. She wouldn’t let Thawne get away, and Cisco would agree with her, the risk was worth it.

Kara’s eyes lit up and she unleashed a beam of heat vision towards the ever growing tornado, before she heard a cry and suddenly it dissipated, Thawne falling to the floor in pain and shock.

“Now, Cisco!” Kara yelled as Cisco opened another portal, Kara rushing over and grabbing Thawne, picking him up and throwing him through the portal. The breach opened on the other side of the warehouse, where Thawne slammed into the far wall, hitting the floor.

As everyone else engaged Thawne or tended to the wounded, Barry found himself alone with Savitar.

“Everyone you love dies Barry. This will be no different.” Savitar gloated as the scarlet speedster looked upon Savitar with hatred.

“I will end this.” Barry promised.

“You can try.” Savitar sneered as Barry charged towards them, Savitar easily slapped Barry aside with a laugh.

“You know you cannot match my speed, Barry Allen. Why do you try to oppose me? Join me, kneel before your God.”

“I’ll die before you become a God.” Barry swore as he looked around and saw the others taking down Thawne.

“That, can be arranged.” Savitar spat.

Savitar rushed towards Barry, grabbing him by the throat and throwing him around, before Barry even hit the floor, he was lifted into the air once more and flung again, Savitar repeated this several times before they let Barry drop to the floor in pain.

“Kneel.” Savitar growled as Barry spat at them.

“ _You_ will kneel.” Barry promised, before Savitar could do anything, they felt ice on their back, looking over, they saw Caitlin Snow using her powers to unleash blasts of ice at Savitar.

Turning to deal with the new threat, Savitar moved towards Caitlin as fast as they could with the ice slowing their movements. Caitlin smiled at this and fired again and again to slow Savitar further down.

“You will pay.” Savitar promised as he began to vibrate to escape the icy grip. As he did so, he saw several streaks of lightning before suddenly Barry, Jay and Wally stood before him.

“Wally?” Barry asked, as he saw his fellow Flash stood beside him. He looked over and saw Jay was also standing, a bit bloodied, a bit bruised, but his grin suggested he was ready to go.

“I’m alright, Barry.” Wally promised.

“Let’s finish this.” Jay stated.

The three speedsters raced towards Savitar as Caitlin continued to hit the speed God from the back. Savitar roared in frustration as their enemies spread out, they could not hit them all at once. Choosing the largest pain, Savitar turned towards Caitlin.

“Caitlin Snow, you feared becoming Killer Frost. I will spare you that fate, by killing you now.” Savitar promised before they lifted Caitlin into the air, holding her tightly by the throat.

Caitlin felt her life flash before her eyes before she was suddenly released and fell to the floor. Looking up with bleary eyes, she saw Cisco holding onto her, Savitar had dropped her as Kara had rejoined the fray, shoving the Speed God back with her strength.

“I’m getting you out of here.” Cisco stated as he opened a breach to S.T.A.R and took Caitlin through it. Julian saw the two of them coming through and raced over to help Cisco get Caitlin to a bed and tend to her.

“What about the others?” Julian asked Cisco.

“They’re more than enough to take Savitar alone, especially with Barry’s plan. Caitlin needs our help now.”

“I can handle it, get back there, Cisco, they’ll need you.” Julian said before Cisco nodded and opened another breach, returning to the site of the battle.

Back at the battle, the three speedsters and Kara rushed at Savitar who relished the challenge and began to swat them aside as he raced around, far faster than all four of them.

“You cannot hope to defeat me!” Savitar roared as he threw Wally against the wall, where he once again slid to the floor unconscious after hitting it with his head.

“Barry, do it!” Kara yelled as she landed next to him, pointing towards Thawne, they saw the Reverse Flash rising to his feet. “I’ll handle Thaddeus, you and Jay end this!” Kara cried as she flew off towards Thawne, grappling with him.

Jay charged at Savitar as Barry watched Kara and Thawne go at one another and was lifted into the air, and punched before being slammed into the ground.

“You are nothing, Garrick.” Savitar growled before Barry stole one last look at Savitar before running away. Jay gritted his teeth at these words and prepared himself to prove Savitar wrong.

‘Once more unto the breach.’ Jay thought to himself as he unsteadily rose to his feet. He was beaten, bruised and bleeding from several injuries, Wally was on the floor, out cold, Barry had ran, ran as fast as he could, Kara was still engaged against Thawne, she had the upper hand but the speedster wasn’t going down quietly, and Cisco had taken Caitlin back to S.T.A.R. He was alone against Savitar for the moment. Now was the time, time to put their plan into action. It was risky, but the reward for success would be a multiverse free of the threat of Savitar.

Jay rushed towards Savitar who laughed at the challenge, swatting Jay aside like a fly, he picked up the Flash of Earth-3 and threw him around a few times, listening to the crunching Jay made as he ploughed into the pavements. After a few times, he strode over and grabbed Jay in one hand, lifting him into the air.

“You thought you could stand against me, Garrick?” Savitar growled as he held Jay limply in the air by his throat. “Now I will take from you all that you hold dear, your speed.” Savitar retracted the armour around his arm as he began to draw upon the Speed Force, drawing the entity from Jay, as Jay felt himself begin to slow, with the injuries from the fight catching upto him and Savitar beginning to blur as he became too fast for Jay to see, Jay did the last thing Savitar expected him to do. He grinned.

“Bad news.” Jay informed Savitar, coughing slightly on his blood, Savitar looking in shock.

“Why aren’t you afraid, to lose your power?” Savitar asked in curiosity, Garrick looked happy, not sad or angry.

“Because you lost.” Jay grinned, as Savitar’s eyes widened, before even he had a chance to move, he was slammed into by Barry, who fired a bolt of lightning at Savitar. The three competing conduits of Speed Force collided with one another and with a bright light and an ear-splitting explosion, the ground shook as shockwaves flew through the air, knocking everybody else backwards. When the dust of the explosion settled, Barry Allen and Savitar had vanished, and Jay Garrick lay dead upon the floor.

“Barry!” Kara screamed as they raced over to recover Jay’s body and look for any signs of where Barry or Savitar had gone, but there was nothing but silence.

All Cisco could think as he looked at the corpse of Jay Garrick, was the haunting words of Savitar from all those months ago.

‘ _One Shall Fall_ , _but Jay wasn’t one of the names mentioned by Savitar, was he?_

 

‘Where am I?’ was the first thought of Barry after the explosion, before he realised exactly where he was. He’d been here before, after all.

“Hello, Barry.” Said a voice next to him.

“The Speed Force.” Barry said, looking at the person.

“It’s good to see you again. Why did you bring Savitar here?”

“To finish him.”

“Why would we help you do that? You are both speedsters. Both of you have defied the rules regarding the Speed Force. Why should we help you?”

“Because you know Savitar is a threat to all of the Speed Force.” Barry begged the entity to heed him, to allow him to end the threat here and now. If the Speed Force chose to side with Savitar, or chose to let him go, Barry knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Savitar. Savitar needed more speed to rupture reality, in the same vein that Hunter Zolomon had once tried, to wipe out the multiverse. If the Speed Force did nothing, Savitar would siphon it and he’d be unstoppable. It was now or never.

“We shall not help you, Barry Allen.” The Speed Force announced, its words feeling like a punch in the gut to Barry. “However, we shall not allow Savitar to escape, either. You shall do battle, here, in the Speed Force, as you intended.” The entity continued. “You shall either prevail, or neither of you shall leave here.”

“Why would you prevent him leaving if he won?” Barry asked. The Speed Force seemed to try and be neutral, that certainly seemed like it was thinking Barry was the lesser of two evils here.

“Savitar calls themselves a God. They are no God. They will learn the meaning of true power. You shall either strip them of their armour and defeat them, or they shall achieve what they always wanted, to merge with the Speed Force.”

“If you can do that, why not just do it yourself?” Barry asked. Why make Barry fight Savitar if the Speed Force planned to hold him forever anyway?

“Because you are also a threat, Barry Allen. When you saved your mother, you ruined an entire timeline. Be careful we do not trap you here for all of time as well.”

“What can I do to make you realise Savitar needs to be stopped, now?” Barry implored the Speed Force, the manifestation of it sneered at him in his father’s face. Or was it Jay’s face?

“You will fight them, you will defeat them and then you shall return to your friends, and never return to this plane of existence again.” Not-Henry told him, the words feeling like another gut punch, never return here again? Had he angered the Speed Force that badly when he changed the timeline in Flashpoint?

“How can I defeat him without your help? He is far faster than me.” Barry argued.

“In the Speed Force, all Speedsters are subject to me.” Not-Henry explained to Barry. “I can even the playing field.”

“You’d do that?”

“To stop the imposter and show who truly rules the Speed Force, I shall help you, Barry Allen. Once you have defeated Savitar, and removed them from their armour, my agent shall claim what is rightfully ours.”

“Your agent? Rightfully yours?”

“No Speedster can escape Time, Mr Allen, not even Savitar. Once they are exposed to the ravages of Time, our agent shall appear. I believe you may have heard of The Black Flash?”

“The manifestation of Death to a Speedster?” Barry asked, recalling something he may have heard once.

“Very good Mr Allen. Once Savitar is caught up by time, their age will show, Savitar is the oldest Speedster, as you are aware. They are millennia old, and as such, nature has had its time with them. Once they leave the suit, Time will have its due through us.”

“Where is he?” Barry asked. It may not be much, but it was a fighting chance, and Barry had rage and justice on his side, he would avenge Jay and he would rid the multiverse of Savitar. For Iris, for Jay, for Wally, for Cisco, for Joe, for Caitlin and especially for Kara.

As Savitar looked around, they saw that they were alone, surrounded by trees, in what appeared to be an idyllic suburban neighbourhood. Looking around, eyes fixed on a certain door, an ancient memory stirred within Savitar.

‘Home?....’ Savitar thought, wondering where the thought of this came from, before a flash of lightning appeared before him, and there stood Barry Allen.

“Savitar, it is time to end this!” Barry roared, Savitar chuckled at his impertinence.

“You cannot defeat me, Barry. I am a God!” Savitar roared as they rushed towards Barry, ready to easily defeat the scarlet speedster, before they noticed something, they weren’t travelling nearly as fast as they usually did. Barry smirked as he too raced towards Savitar, whose eyes opened in shock and fear as they saw Barry race towards them as fast as they rushed towards Barry.

“Can’t I?” Barry sneered as he rushed Savitar, punching and screaming at Savitar in his rage and anger, they rushed around the construct of the speed force, punching one another and throwing lighting blasts. As the two raced around, Barry raced fuelled by rage and anger, Savitar with cold maliciousness.

As the two of them exchanged blows, Savitar noticed they couldn’t defeat Barry conventionally, at least not any time soon. It was time to end this, in a way only Savitar could do so. They retracted their armour, ready to steal the speed from Barry, once they had Barry’s speed, they could easily kill him. Now they were in the Speed Force, they had no further need for Thaddeus Thawne. They could safely merge with it here, and become a true God.

As Savitar retracted their armour though, Barry sensed an opportunity, grabbing onto the armour, Barry poured all of his anger and rage into his strength, and wrapping the Speed Force around it, he ripped the armour around Savitar’s arm from them, causing Savitar to scream in pain as they felt Time catching up to them.

“Does it hurt?!” Barry screamed at Savitar as Savitar reeled backwards from the pain, before they could mount another attack to rob Barry of his speed, Barry grabbed Savitar’s plating where their arm was exposed, and began to rip it further off, wrapping the Speed Force around it and pulling it from them. Savitar cried out in more pain as more and more of their body was exposed to the Speed Force and to Time itself.

“STOP THIS!” Savitar roared as they went to grab Barry, but with a manic fire in his eyes, Barry dodged Savitar’s blows, feeling the raw energy of the Speed Force surrounding him, and seeing Savitar fall backwards in pain, Barry continued his assault on the would be God.

“This is for Jay! For Iris! For everyone you hurt or wanted to hurt!” Barry roared as he continued his assault, Savitar weakly tried to run, but Barry had momentum and justice on his side, as he continued to rip away the armour that protected Savitar from the effects of Time.

As he ripped away the last of the armour and pulled Savitar’s helmet from them, he looked down at the beaten form of Savitar in shock. Barry _knew_ who Savitar was. As Savitar opened their eyes, those oh so familiar eyes, there was a primal sounding roar.

“Looks like Time has caught upto me after all, Barry.” Savitar groaned as they unsteadily rose to their feet.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Barry asked, panicked as the noise seemed to draw ever closer.

“The Black Flash. Defeated, I have no chance. This is Time, and it has finally caught me.” Savitar stated, looking towards the distance where the roar was coming from. “You and I, Flash, we had the best and the worst of times.”

Before Barry could reply to that, to say _anything_ at all, to rage, to scream, to cry, to apologise, before he could do anything for Savitar, a being appeared before them, a dark mass, red lightning streaking around them, a face, eaten away at by ageing and time, it snarled at Barry before turning its gaze to Savitar.

“I knew you’d come for me when the effects of time caught upto me. Hello again Hunter, it’s been a while.”

‘Hunter?’ Barry thought, before it all clicked into place.

“ZOOM?!” Barry yelled, looking at the being in front of him, it made no movement of recognition as it stared at Savitar, snarling as it slowly approached him.

“He is now the Black Flash. The entity of Death. When a Speedster is about to die, he appears, ready to return us to the Speed Force. It appears it’s my time, due to you, Barry. You defeated me, at long last, for good. Well played.” Savitar looked at Barry, and Barry felt a punch to his gut at the rage and hatred aimed at him in those all too familiar eyes. “I just want you to know, Barry Allen, something for you to remember in all your brightest moments. I. Hate. You.”

Barry reeled back in shock, each word feeling like a punch to the chest. No, this wasn’t right, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be at all, why did he feel like this?

“Despite it all though, Barry, you cannot save her.” Savitar gloated before the Black Flash screeched once again and grabbed them, rushing off in a flash of red lightning before Barry could even react, taking Savitar with them, roaring and screaming in pain as they went, into the beyond. It was over. Savitar was dead.

Barry fell to his knees as Savitar vanished, the strength leaving his body as the effects of the days battle caught upto him.

“Now, Barry Allen, you have brought some semblance back to the Speed Force. As a reward for helping to stop Savitar, you will be allowed to return back to your reality.” Not-Henry said as he appeared next to Barry once more.

“Why?” Barry croaked out after several minutes of not-Henry staring at him.

“You have done us a great service.” The Speed Force explained.

“Why did you let this happen?!” Barry screamed, feeling the anger and the rage surge back into him.

“We cannot intervene in past events.” It simply stated. “We cannot change reality, we are a force of nature, not a God.”

“Then what are you good for?!” Barry yelled at it as it watched him, letting him get all of his anger out. “Why don’t you just go away!”

“You are angry-“ The Speed Force began.

“I DON’T CARE! TAKE IT! TAKE MY SPEED AWAY! Just end all of this…suffering.” Barry broke down into sobs as he felt the exhaustion catch upto him, the rage and anger cooling off to be replaced by fatigue and sadness.

“Barry….you must return to your own sense of reality, it is the only way. We shall not remove your connection to Speed Force.” The voice decreed before the construct of Henry Allen began to walk away from the fallen speedster.

Barry just looked at him numbly, before standing, and with a glare he flashed away, feeling the Speed Force envelop him as he ran, he raced as fast and as hard as he could, feeling like he would explode from the pressure, before he appeared before Team Flash and Kara once more, Thawne having been defeated by Kara earlier in the fight, he lay on the ground, motionless.

“Barry!” Yelled Iris and Kara as they rushed over, Barry collapsing once more due to exhaustion. Savitar was gone, it was finally over.

As they grabbed him, he gave both of them a goofy smile before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped, Kara picking him up and putting him over her shoulder.

“I’ll take him back to S.T.A.R labs, you guys deal with Thawne.” Kara said as she took to the air in a hurry, it was time to get Barry back to Julian and Caitlin to find out what was wrong, and once he was better, find out what the hell had happened with Savitar and Jay.

As Kara flew Barry into the cortex, she was met by a worried looking Julian, who was tending to Caitlin, still unresponsive on another bed. It didn’t look good for the doctor.

“I heard from the others, what happened?” Julian asked as Kara laid Barry down on a bed and Julian got to work on him.

“We’re not sure, there was an explosion, Barry and Savitar vanished, and Jay…Jay was dead.”

 Kara felt floored by the fact that the kindly older man was just gone, whilst Julian began to hastily wipe tears away from his eyes. There would be time for them, all of them, to grieve Jay later, for now she had to make sure Barry was alright, and if not, she had to make sure he wouldn’t be joining Jay. Julian hadn’t known the man well, but he still felt sadness over the death of a comrade, all because of Savitar.

“Where did Barry and Savitar go?” Julian asked as he continued to check over Barry’s unconscious self. He wasn’t an expert by any means, but he knew he’d do in a crisis.

“Barry mentioned something about the Speed Force and a risky plan. I think they went there and whatever he was planning worked, because Savitar hasn’t come back.” Kara told Julian.

“Savitar will never come back.” A voice croaked out behind them, the Kryptonian and the CSI turned to see Barry, struggling to sit back up.

“No, you’re staying right where you are!” Julian chastised him as he came over to push Barry back down onto the bed.

“You’re sure it’s over?” Kara asked Barry, concern all over her face. She didn’t want Barry to go through that ever again, she wouldn’t risk him.

“Yeah, I’m certain. Savitar is gone.” Barry affirmed as he let Julian take over looking after him, Kara letting out a sigh of relief she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. Finally, things could hopefully get back to normal again, or as normal as it got for a speedster and a Kryptonian from another universe.

“The others need to hear this.” Kara stated before a shout came over the comms.

“What’s wrong?” Kara asked as Barry forced himself to sit up, despite Julian’s protests.

“It’s Thawne!” Wally’s voice yelled out. “He got the drop on us, and he’s taken Iris!”

“Where are you?” Barry called out as Kara and Julian both glared at him. Barry was in no state to be chasing after Thaddeus, he had to let them handle it.

Barry felt the icy grip of fear wash over him as he heard that Thawne had taken Iris, it was just as he had thought, Savitar was right.

‘You cannot save her.’ The voice of Savitar reverberated in his mind. This was their final revenge, wasn’t it?

 

“Barry!” Yelled Kara as he fixed both her and Julian with a look of despair before rushing away. He had to find Thawne, he had to stop all of this.

“Everyone back to S.T.A.R!” Julian called over the comms, Cisco creating a portal for those without powers and to bring Jay’s body back, with Wally racing back.

“What’s going on?” Wally asked.

“Why aren’t we out finding my daughter?!” Joe yelled. He needed to find Iris, he needed to keep her safe. Barry saw her die in the future, they couldn’t lose her now.

“Barry’s gone out after her, but we don’t know where he went, and his trackers got shorted out by him entering the Speed Force. We need to make sure he’s safe and doesn’t do anything rash as well.” Cisco explained.

“Let’s split up, Cisco, you try and vibe Barry and Iris, Wally, you and Kara patrol the city, spreading further and further out, a 50 mile radius from Central only! We cannot afford to get split up now.” Julian said, taking charge of the situation as Joe went into overprotective cop mode and the others looked lost for ideas.

Wally and Kara took off as Cisco began to try and vibe his missing friends, Joe took off to the Precinct, it was time to try and get the CCPD resources involved, with Julian feeling helpless as he waited around for news and tried to use the S.T.A.R labs resources to track either of them.

Despite many hours of seeking, none of them could find a lead on Iris or Barry, as they met back up at S.T.A.R labs, everyone looked forlorn, exhausted.

“We can’t give up guys!” Wally called as Kara nodded. They wouldn’t and couldn’t give up now, they had to find Iris and Barry and bring them back safely.

“Where do we begin to look?” Cisco asked as they all racked their brains to think of where Thawne could have gone, and where Barry may have gone to try and find them. Before they could do anything else, they heard a panting from the corridor leading to the cortex, as they went to head off to see who it was, they noticed Barry walking in, limping slightly.

“Barry!” Everyone called out as he walked into the cortex, until they noticed a very obvious error.

“Where’s Iris?!” Joe called out as he looked his foster son over. Barry was safe, he was back and he would be ok, but where was his baby girl?

“Joe…” Barry broke off, tears in his eyes.

“No, no, no.” Wally said, looking in shock, Kara and Julian looked down in sadness, as Julian clutched onto the cortex computer for support, Cisco looking like another hammer had struck his chest, so soon after Caitlin. Iris couldn’t be, she just couldn’t….

“NO!” Yelled Joe in rage as he shoved Barry aside, lost in his anger at even entertaining the thought that this was all for nothing, that despite everything, Iris was still taken. He stormed from the room and Wally quickly followed, the two West men consoling one another.

“She’s gone.” Barry stated, sealing the fate around the room of their missing member, and bringing everyone into even deeper depths of despair. Iris West couldn’t be gone, she just couldn’t, Barry had to be wrong, some way, somehow, he had to be mistaken.

“What happened?” Cisco asked, needing to hear what had gone so horribly wrong, yet wishing he never heard that this had happened.

“I found Thawne, he was holding Iris, he goaded me that she was already dead, we fought, I took some hits but I won, I went to check Iris over, and…she was gone. I fell to my knees and broke down, and Thawne surprised me, he knocked me out. When I woke up, he was gone and he’d taken her body with him.” Barry looked down in shame as the others hugged one another, Kara coming over to Barry and pulling him into a hug.

“It’ll be ok, we’ll get through this, together.” Kara sniffed as she held tight onto Barry, allowing his sobs onto her shoulder as shudders racked through his body. She wouldn’t let her boyfriend go, he’d know she was here for him, and together, they’d work through this, they’d find Thawne, and make him pay, and they’d make sure Iris got a proper send-off.

“It’s just too much.” Barry cried into her shoulder before breaking off, surprising Kara who let go of him.

“Barry?” Kara asked, alarmed at the sudden movement.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…I’m so full of…rage. I need to get away from it all.” Barry said.

Before any of them could ask what he meant, before they could even react, Barry was gone.

“BARRY!” Yelled Kara, an exclamation that would go unanswered, as Barry raced away into the night, only one thought in his mind. To get away from here, as far and as fast as he could. He raced faster and faster until he felt himself slip away, slip through the time stream to another era.

As he came out of the time stream, he noticed a huge castle before him, surrounded by trees, and he saw a few familiar faces approaching him.

“Jax? Stein?” Barry asked in shock, looking at the two equally shocked Legends.

“Barry?” Jax asked.

“Mr Allen, what an unexpected but pleasant surprise!” Stein remarked. “Why are you here, now, though?”

Before Stein or Jax could ask anything else, the stress of recent events caught upto Barry, and he fell to the floor in a faint, moving towards him, the two men hoisted Barry up between them and began to half lift, half drag him back to the _Wave Rider._ Barry could shed some light on the issue when he awoke.

Back in Central City in 2017, another friend was lost, due to the injuries sustained in the battle, Caitlin Snow succumbed to them and passed. The words of Savitar from long ago reverberated inside Cisco’s head as he felt the grief wash over him, encompassing him far more than the grief over the death of Dante ever did.

‘ _One Shall Fall.’_

 

It was dark in the cave, time didn’t pass here as it did elsewhere. Thawne said it was because of where they were and what they were doing, but Iris didn’t pretend to understand it, honestly, she could hardly remember where she was, when she was and some days, who she was.

All she knew was that the constant tests hurt, and the pain caused rage, anger and a determination to beat the pain, to master it, to rise above it all. She hated the suit she was also forced into, it restricted her movement, but she was promised by Thawne, was he even real, a figment inside of her head, that when she mastered her new powers, it would be the single greatest decision of her life to use.

Was it her decision? She wasn’t sure of anything, anymore. Thawne may have been just something her mind made up, she wasn’t even sure who she was anymore, and she only heard herself referred to by Thawne, as a single name.

“It’s time to continue.” Thawne’s voice spoke from her side, as she cocked her head towards him. “We need to get stronger, get better, get faster, if we are ever going to beat the one who exiled us to this time, to this place and made us suffer far worse than death.” Thawne goaded.

Iris felt determination burn within her, she would have her revenge, she would be back and she would make sure that the one who had done all of this to her, had caused her all of this pain, would suffer upon her return. She knew her purpose and her motivation. Her motivation was hatred. Her purpose? To kill Barry Allen.

“Now it is time for us to begin the next phase.” Thawne said as Iris looked at him in determined rage.

“First, tell me, I know my goal and I know my reasoning, but I don’t know who I am.” Iris said to Thawne, wondering why she couldn’t remember her own name.

“Your name?” Thawne looked at her in shock.

“Yes, you know it, correct?” Iris asked him.

“I do.” Thawne replied.

“What is it?” Iris asked before Thawne fixed her with a grin.

“Lord Savitar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that happened...
> 
>  
> 
> Next time, Barry and the Legends vs The Legion of Doom as Kara and Kal-El take on a man named Zod...


	17. Return to Earth-38 and Legends Unite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara returns to Earth-38 and has a new threat as Barry teams up with the Legends to stop the Legion of Doom.

 

Barry awoke to find Jax and Stein looking over him, wondering what they could do.

 

“Guys.” Barry said as he saw the two of them checking him over. “I’m fine.”

 

“Mr Allen, what happened?” Stein asked, looking in concern as Jax frowned. Barry clearly wasn’t fine and whatever had happened had clearly taken a lot out of him.

 

“I’ll tell you with the rest of the Legends, I assume the _Wave Rider_ is nearby?” Barry asked, getting to his feet gingerly as Stein and Jax looked in concern still.

 

“Alright, Barry. It’s over here.” Jax stated. Barry followed Jax and Stein to where the _Wave Rider_ was waiting for the two Legends to depart from Camelot.

 

“There you are! Get lost?” Nate asked the two of them as they boarded before noticing Barry was with them. “Barry? What? How?” Nate asked, shocked.

 

“Hey, Nate.” Barry waved as he boarded the ship. “It’s a long story.”

 

“Come in, come in, the others will want to see you.” Nick stated as the trio showed Barry the ship, taking him upto the main room where everyone else was gathered.

 

“Ready to get off? We’ve got the Spear of Destiny, and we’ve got the JSA to take back to 1942.” Sara said as the four of them entered, stopping at the sight of Barry, who looked beaten and older, as if he had aged a century in the few months they had been gone.

 

“Barry?” Sara asked as the rest of the Legends looked in shock at the appearance of their friend, whilst the JSA members who didn’t know him seemed confused by the sudden emergence of a new person on the ship.

 

“Hey guys.” Barry said before he felt his legs start to give way again. Jax helped him over to a seat and sat him down in Sara’s office as everyone walked over to him.

 

“How are you here? Why are you here?” Ray asked, wondering how he could have gotten there when they left him behind in 2016.

 

“You know I can time travel, Ray.” Barry smiled weakly. “It’s over. I beat Savitar, but…I think I lost everything.” Barry broke down into sobs as the Legends just looked in confusion and sadness. What could they do to make Barry well again? What had happened to him with Savitar that was so bad?

 

“Barry, it’s ok, you can talk to us about it.” Sara stated as she pulled Barry in close. She’d be damned if she was going to allow her friend to suffer like this, they’d find out what was wrong with Barry and they’d fix it, they’d get him back home and back to everyone he’d left behind, they were probably panicking that he was gone.

 

“Barry, what time have you come from?” Sara gently asked, needing to know where to send a message too to tell them that they had Barry with them.

 

“May 2017.” Barry stated, the Legends looking relieved, it wasn’t too far into their futures, but they didn’t really want to know what had turned Barry from a strong leader into a sobbing wreck in only six months. It wasn’t something they wanted to make Barry go through again or something they wanted to imagine their friends going through.

 

“What happened Barry?” Ray asked, wondering how he could help his friend. Even when Barry told everyone about Flashpoint, he hadn’t looked this defeated and broken.

 

“We brought Kara and Jay Garrick, the Flash of Earth-3, to help us.” Barry started as the rest paid attention, wanting to know how they could help their friend recover. “We found out Savitar was using Thaddeus Thawne, the Reverse-Flash of Earth-19, to destroy us.”

 

“Thaddeus Thawne?” Stein asked. “Any relation to Eobard?”

 

“He said he isn’t.” Barry said to Martin.

 

“Who is this punk?” Mick asked Barry.

 

“HR. He was playing us all along. He was Thaddeus.” Barry admitted as the rest looked in shock. HR Wells had seemed a bit simple, but eager to help and a nice person. He was a bad guy all along?

 

“Oh Barry, I’m sorry.” Amaya said. She didn’t know Barry all that well, but she knew what betrayal felt like and she didn’t want to know what her new friend was feeling at the moment.

 

“We went to stop them, but Jay died, and then..then…Iris died.” Barry admitted as a fresh round of sobs wracked through his body. He’d failed his friend and he hated himself for it.

 

The Legends looked shocked that Iris had died, they could see that this had broken Barry, and they had no idea how they could fix him, how they could put the Flash back together.

 

“I’m so sorry Barry.” Sara said as she held onto Barry, wishing desperately that she could make her friend better. Barry just closed his eyes as the sobs went through him still, wishing that the pain would go away, would just leave him in peace.

 

“Barry…” Jax started, wondering how he could word this without setting his friend off further. “What about Kara and the others?”

 

“Oh God.” Barry realised, remembering that he had left his friends back in 2017. How could he forget them? Especially Kara. How could he forget about Kara and abandon her?

 

“I’ve got to get back, guys.” Barry said, getting to his feet before he collapsed once again.

 

“You’re not going anywhere at the moment, Barry, you need to rest and recover.” Amaya insisted as Mick and Sara helped Barry back onto a chair.

 

Barry’s eyes rolled in his head and he felt the grasp of unconsciousness claim him as the Legends tried to help him. But he was too far gone to notice their help as his mind wandered in his dream like state.

 

Barry saw Zoom stood before him, lightning crackling around him as the demonic face looked upon him.

 

“Hunter!” Barry snarled as the man took off his hood and smirked at him. He still had the same cocky grin he always had before the Time Wraiths had taken him away.

 

“I said we were the same, Barry. And now we are. We’re both monsters.” Zoom began to laugh as Barry looked in horror at his old enemy, his laugh ringing in Barry’s ears as the scene changed and Zoom disappeared. As he refocused on his new dream, it was, if anything, even more horrifying than Zoom.

 

Barry saw himself stood in the ruins of a city, corpses mounted high all around him, as he took in the horrific sight and all of the carnage, he heard chanting, as he moved towards the voices he saw a man, floating before everyone, the sun illuminating his blood red cape as it flowed in the wind, the people looked upon the floating figure with reverence as they chanted.

 

“Superman! Superman!”

 

“Death to the traitors! Death to the traitors!”

 

Barry looked in confusion and shock, wasn’t Superman Kara’s cousins’ name? He saw the man surveying all below him before his eyes fixed onto a young woman facing him in mid-air.

 

“Kara! Join me now!”

 

“Kal, we’re not like this! We have to stop!”

 

“You’re either with me or against me.” Kal spat at her before he turned his eye towards Barry, standing petrified at the scene before him.

 

“Barry! I’ll give you one more chance too! Rejoin me and the Regime, or die with Batman and his Insurgency!”

 

/

 

Kara walked through the portal back to Earth-38, her eyes rimmed red with tears. It had been two days, and Barry was nowhere to be seen. They had begun preparations for Iris and Caitlin to be laid to rest, and Kara knew she had to get away, she had outstayed her welcome, nobody said that to her, but she could feel it. Before long, they’d start to be angry with her as a way to vent their anger at Barry for leaving, and at Thawne and Savitar for the deaths of their friends.

 

Kara came out inside her apartment to see Alex, Winn, James and Mon-El all gathered there.

 

“Kara!” They all called as she reappeared.

 

“Hi, guys.” Kara noted glumly, as they frowned at her. What was the matter? Where was Barry?

 

“What’s the matter Kara?” Mon-El asked as Alex wrapped her sister in a hug, seeing her tearful eyes.

 

“It’s just everything. We won, but friends died and Barry, he said yes to dating me, but then he ran off, after it all, he said it was t-too much and ran, he’s been gone for days.” Kara said, her voice breaking towards the end as Alex looked murderous, Mon-El looked annoyed and Winn and James looked confused.

 

“He left you alone in another universe?” Alex looked downright murderous as Winn and James came around to looks of anger as well. They may like Barry, but if abandoned Kara, he’d be in for a world of pain the next time he showed up. Mon-El looked pleased hearing that Barry had abandoned Kara, perhaps he had a chance with the Kryptonian hero now?

 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Kara whispered as her voice broke. She truly thought Barry was the one, and she really hoped he’d ran just due to the stress, and he’d return to her, but she wasn’t sure, she said she’d always trust Barry, but she didn’t know if she could any longer. He had hurt her and left her alone in another universe.

 

Alex and the others took the hint that Kara wasn’t willing to open up about what had happened on Earth-1 just yet and so settled in to welcoming her back. It had been several days on their Earth now since Kara had last left with Barry, and they were getting worried when she hadn’t already returned with him.

 

After a few hours of talking to the others, Kara felt no better within herself and asked the others to leave, so that she could take the night to herself to try and cheer herself up. As James, Mon-El and Winn left, Kara pulled Alex aside.

 

“Stay?”

 

“Sure.” Alex smiled, before she texted Maggie to tell her that she wouldn’t be back tonight. Kara had returned and her sister needed her. After all, Ice cream wasn’t going to eat itself.”

 

“So, will we see Supergirl back in the air tomorrow?” Alex broached with her sister, not wanting to upset her.

 

“Yeah, National City needs its hero.” Kara smiled. Since James had been beaten down by Metallo, he’d not appeared as often as Guardian, leaving National City for the real superhero. She appreciated that James was trying, but he would be killed if he kept going for this.

 

/

 

Barry awoke to find himself in the med bay of the _Wave Rider_ with Stein and Ray watching over him.

 

“Barry!” Ray called as he saw Barry opening his eyes.

 

“Mr Allen!” Stein remarked as Barry struggled to sit up properly.

 

“W-What happened?” Barry groggily asked as he tried to sit up, and wipe his eyes.

 

“You passed out after we got you on the ship, you told us you beat Savitar, but people died.” Ray admitted sadly, wishing that they could help Barry. It was obvious that whilst Gideon may have helped him heal physically, emotionally, from what Barry had told them, it would take a while before he’d be alright again.

 

Barry said nothing, just looking forward, lost in the memories of what had happened.

 

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Stein asked, looking at his young friend with concern in his eyes. He hated the idea that he couldn’t help people, now that he was a Legend, he wanted to make sure that he could heal everything, as he did with the aberrations.

 

“I can’t, not now, I just….I just need time.” Barry stated, his voice hoarse as Ray and Stein nodded. They’d give Barry time if he needed it, and they’d be there for their friend.

 

“So, what have you guys been upto since the Dominators?” Barry asked, hoping to deflect the attention from himself.

 

Ray and Stein looked at one another, frowning. They didn’t want to bring Barry into their problems, especially with what he had lost recently, but with his help, they might be able to finish this a lot easier, and it could help Barry to work through his issues.

 

“There’s a group called the Legion of Doom.” Ray started explaining to Barry.

 

“It’s compromised of Damien Darkh, Malcolm Merlyn and…Eobard Thawne.” Stein stated as Barry looked in shock.

 

“Thawne?! You’re fighting Thawne?!” Barry asked, struck. Thawne was still causing trouble. This could be his chance, his chance at some slight redemption. He had to help take down Eobard, once and for all.

 

“We could really use your help on that, you know, if you’re up to it.” Ray said. He wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to let Barry help with fighting, especially after all that had happened, but if there was a chance it’d help and could stop the Legion before they could rewrite reality.

 

“If you’re up against Thawne, you’ll need all the help you can get, and besides, he hates me just as much as I hate him, if he’s busy dealing with me, it leaves your team free to stop Merlyn and Darkh.” Barry told them as he moved to get up. He needed to get onto Thawne as soon as possible, this was his chance at atonement, he couldn’t let Eobard get away again, he had to stop him and he would.

 

“We’ll talk to the rest of the team, we need to get the JSA back to 1942.” Ray stated, as the two of them helped Barry back to his feet. It was time to get the JSA home and track down the final piece of the Spear, they knew the Legion would probably find it, and when they did, the Legends would be there to stop them.

 

/

 

As the new day dawned on National City, Supergirl once more took to the skies. It was time to get back to it. She still felt devastated that Barry had left her behind, but she knew she had to keep up being Supergirl and help others, and work through her anger and her heartbreak herself. She knew her friends and family would be there for her, and despite it all, she still hoped, that someday, Barry would come back to her.

 

Kara flew through the air towards a car pile-up she saw happening on the freeway, as she neared it, she saw NCPD were already on the scene, including one familiar Detective.

 

“Detective Sawyer, how can I help?” Kara asked as she landed next to Maggie.

 

“Supergirl, glad to see you.” Maggie smiled at her. “We’ve got a few people trapped in the furthest cars, but we can’t get to them as flames are starting to rise up and fuel is leaking, if we don’t get there soon…” Maggie trailed off as Kara understood.

 

“I’m on it.” She promised as she took to the sky and flew towards the people trapped in the other cars.

 

Kara rushed over to the cars and began to tear off the doors and roofs of the cars, pulling people out as the fires crawled ever closer, once they reached the fuel on the road, the entire pile up would go up in flames. Kara raced around and pulled person after person from their cars, rushing them over to where the NCPD and ambulances were waiting for them.

 

As Kara rushed to get more people to safety, suddenly the fuel was ignited by the fire, and she watched helplessly as the flames rushed towards the car, even at her speed, she didn’t have the time to save the car as well as get the current passengers she held to safety. As Kara braced herself to try and push her speeds, suddenly a whoosh of air blew out the fires, and as Kara looked on in shock, another figure appeared to rescue the trapped citizens. As they carried them over to the NCPD, the officers looked on in shock at who had come to Supergirl’s aid.

 

“Kal?” Kara asked as her cousin landed beside her with a smile.

 

“Supergirl.” He nodded, as he looked over her shoulder at the NCPD, not wanting to reveal her identity to them.

 

“What are you doing here?” She asked him, after they saw the people had been seen too and the two of them had taken to the skies once more, heading back towards the DEO.

 

“I’ve decided to come to National City for a few weeks, I’ve already got time off with Perry and told Lois I’ll be coming here to give you a hand. I’ve seen what Cadmus were doing, nicely handled by the way with them.” He smiled at her as Kara blushed. It felt good to be getting credited with stopping them, even if she hadn’t done all of the work herself.

 

“But Cadmus has been dealt with?” Kara asked, still wondering why he was there if Cadmus was gone.

 

“Yes, but the threats recently seem to be coming for National City, like Mxyzpltk, he’s been a menace for me before, I’m glad you got rid of him quickly enough.” Clark smiled at her. “I thought, if the threats are all coming here, it’s better to have two Supers than just one looking out for the world.” He smiled as Kara nodded.

 

She’d missed Kal ever since their team up all those months ago, and if he was here to help for a few weeks, she’d gladly take all the help he could provide.

 

/

 

“Right, time to get going again.” Mick said as the Legends bade farewell to the JSA. Amaya had decided to accompany the Legends to the end, to bring Eobard Thawne to justice, but the rest of the JSA would resume their old lives back in 1956 and work to bring freedom and peace to the world again. As the Legends took off back into the Temporal Zone, having dropped the JSA off in 1956 once again, the team congregated in the galley to discuss what would happen next.

 

“I’m not sure where to look for the final piece of the Spear.” Sara said.

 

“We need to work on locating it, once we have it, the Legion will be two pieces short, if we can then get their piece, we can hide the Spear far away.” Stein remarked. Jax and Mick looked out of sorts, wondering what they could do to be helping whilst Ray and Nate dragged Barry off to the library, to see if there was any records of the Spear showing up throughout history and where they could possibly find it.

 

As the three of them began to search through Rip’s old records, the _Wave Rider_ began to violently shake as books and the three men were thrown to the floor with a clash.

 

“What was that?” Barry called out as the shaking subsided.

 

“Time quake, pretty big aberration.” Ray stated as they went to check what was going on.

 

“It’s Coast City.” Nate stated, looking at the data in shock.

 

“What happened?” Sara asked as she came onto the bridge.

 

“It’s gone, news report from May 2017, the recent nuclear detonation which has wiped out Coast City and killed an estimated three million people.”

 

“We’ve got to save them.” Barry stated firmly as the others nodded.

 

“We know it’s going to be another Legion trap, so we’ve got to be prepared.” Sara said as the team went to sit down, ready to make the time jump to 2017 Coast City. It was time to save the timeline again.

 

As Thawne and the rest of the Legends began the timer on their bomb, knowing the destruction of Coast City would send a massive time quake out to the universe, forcing the Legends to bring them the Spear when they came to correct the aberration, they failed to notice one man watching them from nearby, a look of fury on his face as the villains got to work on their bomb.

 

“If they want to harm my city, I’ll handle them.” The man snarled as he guessed what they would be upto. He recognised them from footage of the Flash in Central City or old reports from Star City about the Undertaking or the Ghosts.As he bent over a lantern on his desk, he began to speak a mantra to himself.

 

“In Brightest day, in blackest night…”

 

/

 

Later on that night, Kara and Alex sat in Kara’s apartment, discussing the recent turn of events, with everything that had happened on Earth-1, as well as Clark’s decision to relocate, at least temporarily, to National City.

 

“What happened over there wasn’t on you, Kara. If I see that Barry Allen again.” Alex growled as Kara frowned at her sister.

 

“Alex, he was under a lot of stress, to be fair, I don’t want to talk about it right now.” Kara sighed. She was heartbroken that Barry had vanished without even a goodbye, just after they’d finally given a relationship a go, and the last thing she wanted to discuss right now was the heartbreak from that. Let Barry rot in Hell, she just wanted to cuddle her sister as they watched Netflix and ate ice cream on the sofa together.

 

Alex pursed her lips but didn’t say anything as Kara turned on the television. Before she could switch over to Netflix however, a news alert caught her eye.

 

“This just in, the UFO over Metropolis has delivered a message for humanity to hear. We go live now to the Daily Planet.”

 

“UFO?!” Alex and Kara asked one another, wondering why they’d heard nothing from the DEO or Clark about this.

 

“ _People of Earth, do not fear. I am General Zod, of Kandor-”_

 

 _“_ ZOD!” Kara cried out in horror as Alex looked at her.

 

“Ok, I’m guessing that’s not good news?”

 

“He was a Kryptonian war criminal, he was Astra and Non’s leader, and oh Rao, if Zod is here we’re all in danger.” Kara stated as Alex looked horrified. An even bigger threat than Astra and Non were?

 

_“For years, you have harboured two of my people, but now I demand them back. Your species calls these Superheroes, but they are not heroes, they are fugitives, hiding from my authority. To Kal-El and Kara Zor-El I say this, I shall land upon this Earth in 72 hours. If you do not surrender yourselves and kneel before me at that time, then this planet shall face the consequences of your actions.”_

 

“What are we going to do?” Alex asked as she took in Kara’s horror stricken face. She would NOT let her sister hand herself over to Zod, she could tell from knowing Kara that she was planning to do just that, and no doubt Kal-El was also planning to surrender to him. She wouldn’t allow it, she knew all their friends wouldn’t allow it.

 

“We need to get hold of Clark. Now.” Kara told her sister, looking at Alex with new determination. She would have to hand herself over to Zod to save the world, she knew it. But she needed Clark to do this with her.

 

“I’m already here.” A voice came from the window as Superman hovered in the air before the two Danvers’ sisters.

 

“We need to stop him.” Kara stated.

 

“I know, and I think I have a way. We’ll need to let Zod think we’ll hand ourselves over to him, and when he comes for us, we can strike.” Kal told them.

 

“How do we do that?” Alex asked.

 

“I’ve got a friend.” Kal smirked.

 

“Like Batman?” Kara asked.

 

“Bruce isn’t going to be able to help much against a Kryptonian, especially without any Kryptonite.”

 

“Then who?”

 

“I already called them, they should be here soon.” Clark smiled.

 

Before either of them could retort, they saw a woman flying towards them, clad in what appeared to be armour, heading through the window just as Superman landed inside the apartment.

 

“It’s good to see you again, Kal.” The woman smiled as she wrapped Clark up in a hug.

 

Kara looked at the warrior whom Kal seemed to greet as an old friend.

 

“Clark, who is this?” Kara asked, noting the woman’s armour and the look in her gaze that screamed that you would lose if you fought her and a smile that suggested ‘If you take me down, I’ll take you with me.’

 

“My name is Princess Diana of Themiscyra.” The woman introduced herself to Kara as.

 

“Diana of Themiscyra?” Alex asked, wondering why the name sounded familiar.

 

“I believe your people know me as Wonder Woman?”

 

/

 

“Fascinating, we’re in Coast City.” Stein remarked at the _Wave Rider_ landed.

 

“Yo, Grey, it’s still 2017, what’s exciting about it?” Jax asked.

 

“Oh just that we’re back in our time in a new city. Every adventure we undertake is exciting Jefferson.”

 

As the Legends and Barry headed off of the ship to look for the Legion and their bomb to destroy Coast City and cause the aberration, they noticed a faint glow heading towards them.

 

“What’s going on?” Mick asked as the glowing object got ever closer. “Should I roast it?”

 

“No, Mr Rory.” Stein stated. “We need to observe it first, this could be the aberration.”

 

“Alright, but if it starts trying to attack, it gets roasted.”

 

As the Team got ready to defend in case this glowing object was a threat, Ray zoomed in on it.

 

“Erm, guys?”

 

“What is it, Ray?” Sara asked as they watched it closing in.

 

“It’s a man.” Ray stated as the others looked in shock. A glowing, flying man?

 

As the figure approached them they noticed that it was a man, and the man was in a glowing green suit. He hovered above the Legends, looking as unsure about them as they were about him. Then he noticed Barry and his face broke into a smile at the sight of the Flash.

 

“Hello, Flash. I have to say, I’ve wanted to meet you for a while. Are you here to help?” The man asked

 

“Who are you?” Barry asked, wondering who the figure was and what he wanted Barry’s help with.

 

The man in green looked at Barry, a ring glinting on his hand as he hovered in the air above the Legends.

 

“My name is Hal Jordan.”

 

/

 

As Barry met with the new figure in Coast City, a shimmering white light appeared down a side alley in Central City, until a man appeared there, snapping his fingers his attire changed into a sharp Armani business suit as he looked up at STAR labs, standing tall in the near distance.

 

“Well, let the games begin again.”

 

/

 

As the heroes prepared to deal with their respective challenges, none heard as a voice called out into the darkness as it watched the events unfolding throughout reality.“The multiverse is a cancer, a growth that cannot be allowed to survive. It must be purged, for the greater good. _He_ seeks to protect these worlds, to monitor them. I will cure them. The end of all things will come by my hand, and as for the so-called heroes of these worlds? What can they do, but _burn_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Several teases and several new characters there, hope you liked it. I’m hoping to get the next chapter out before too long, but it may be a while still.


	18. Coast City Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Legends join forces with the Green Lantern as an old friend reappears....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this chapter is short, really wanted a new one out before the 9th though. If you want to know when updates are coming for all of my stories, I’ve made a Twitter @2050_official where I will be posting when updates are coming. 
> 
> A Note for this story, Supergirl should be taken as mostly canon until the beginning of the events of Homecoming, with the exception of Kara/Mon-El romance subplots whereas Flash is only to be taken as canon as far as 3x09.

“Hal Jordan, where do I know that name from?” Jax asked as they looked at the floating green figure before them.

“I used to be a pilot for Ferris Air, if you ever heard of one of their pilots going missing?” Hal asked as a memory flash jogged in Barry’s mind.

“I remember you, I was at Ferris Air once, I mentioned how you’d gone missing…to Snart.” Barry admitted sadly as the rest of the Legends faces fell.

“Why were you there with Snart?” Mick asked, not having heard this from his partner before.

“We were conducting a deal, it helped me to take down Thawne the first time.” Barry informed them as Hal looked them over.

“Are you here to take on the same guys that I am?” Hal asked.

“Two dark haired men and the definition of the Aryan race?” Mick asked as Hal nodded.

“Yeah, we’re after them as well.” Ray stated.

“Why are you after them?” Sara asked, this man shouldn’t know about the destruction of the city, it hasn’t happened yet.

“I saw them building what appears to be a weapon, I recognised them from reports of the Flash’s and Green Arrow’s antics on the news. I was scouring the city to see if they had anyone else helping before engaging them, when I noticed you and your friends over here. I recognised the Flash and sought his help, but all the help you can provide is appreciated.” Hal told her.

“Well we’re grateful for the help.” Sara said to Hal as Hal landed on the ground beside the Legends. 

“So, how shall we play this?” Ray asked.

“I’ve searched the city, I can’t find anyone else, and it is just those three I believe.” Hal told them “We could probably overpower them, but maybe drawing them out?” 

“Less risk and if we draw them out, it’ll leave the weapon undefended, some of us can slip in and take it out.” Stein surmised.

“Ok, but who should do that?” Sara asked. “We will need some of the heavy hitters to stay out here.”

“I suggest myself, Jax and Raymond for the take out, as those most experienced with dealing with nuclear technology.” Stein stated. “Everyone else draw them out, Thawne will definitely want to deal with Mr Allen himself, and the other two shall follow.”

“I’ll be ready for Thawne. I can’t let him get away. He’s my responsibility, and I will stop him.” Barry stated, determined to stop Thawne once and for all.

“I’ll deal with the magic using one, Darkh I think the news called him last year?” Hal stated. 

“Alright, but be careful, Darkh is strong and he won’t be taken easily.” Ray warned him.

“I can take him down from afar, my ring allows me to construct anything I can imagine through willpower alone.” Hal boasted.

“Be careful, though, we shouldn’t risk it. Darkh is ruthless.” Sara informed Hal.

“Alright, so I’ll take Thawne, Hal and Sara take Darkh, Mick and Amaya can take Malcolm whilst Jax, Professor Stein and Ray disarm the device and save the city?” Barry checked.

“It sounds like a plan. Let’s get to it.” Ray smiled as the team set off. It was time to stop the Legion of Doom once and for all.

The Team quickly hurried over to the site to confront the three Legion members, to find that the site where the bomb was being constructed was empty, no sign of a bomb, Darkh, Thawne or Merlyn.

“Where are they?” Sara asked.

“They were here not long ago, they can’t have moved far.” Hal said. “If they were planning to use the bomb, they may have headed further into the city for a bigger impact.”

“We need to find them then, we need to spread out and cover more ground.” Sara stated. “Mick, stay here and scout out to see if there’s a trail, or if they come back. Barry, you and Hal go towards the city centre, Jax and Stein head North with Amaya and Ray and I will head South.” 

The rest of the team split off as Mick grumbled to himself and began to search the area around where Hal had first seen the Legion working.

“The legion are long gone from here and they left nothing lying around.” Mick grumbled to himself. “Why couldn’t I go with Red and Green or Sara and Haircut?” He asked aloud.

“It’s simple, Mick, they don’t respect you.” A voice rang out, Mick spun around to see a figure he’d never expected to see before him standing there.

“Snart?” He asked, shock in his voice.

“Hello, Mick. Surprised to see me again? After all, you left me to die with the Time Masters.” Snart sneered at him. “Don’t worry, we’ve always believed in getting even, and now, I’m here to make good on it.” He promised, before Mick could say anything, he noticed Leonard had raised his gun. “Nothing personal, Mick. Just good business.”

As Snart pulled the trigger, and Mick saw the rushing ice heading towards him, he had time for one final thought.

‘Oh crap.’

Then a feeling of sheer coldness swept over him and everything went dark.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The showdowns begin....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry guys, I'd published this months ago on FFN, and just forgot to upload it to here, so here the next two chapters are. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, several of the keys on this laptop are rather stiff.

Barry raced through the streets of Coast City, a red streak mixing with the lightning of a yellow streak as he and Thawne faced off against one another. The Legends were busy dealing with the other members of the Legion as the two speedsters faced off, Amaya and Nate were fighting Merlyn, who was rapidly losing ground against the duo, as Firestorm and Green Lantern attacked Darkh from the air, distracting and hampering his efforts as he fought Sara hand to hand, the former assasin gaining the upper hand as Darkh struggled against three foes at once.

"You know you cannot defeat me, Barry." Thawne taunted as the two of them exchanged blows with one another as they flashed throughout the city. "Better to give up now and hand over the Spear."

"I've beaten you time and time again, Thawne, and every time, I've let you walk. I won't make that mistake again." Barry vowed as he ducked under Eobard's latest assault and landed several blows into the older speedster's chest, knocking Eobard to the ground. Standing above his fallen foe, hand vibrating menacingly, Barry stared at Eobard who gave a small smile.

"Do it. Strike me down, Flash. Show us both who the villain really is. Kill me, you become me, Barry." Thawne taunted as Barry stared still, unsure whether or not to finally finish this, once and for all.

As Barry wrestled with his conscience and his desire for vegeance for all the things that Thawne had done to him and his friends over the years, the Legends were taking care of the Legion of Doom, Merlyn had been downed by Nate and Amaya, with Nate grabbing Merlyn and carrying him to the _Wave Rider_ to be placed in the brig. Darkh was still on the backfoot against Sara, Firestorm and Hal and was in desperate need of assistance.

Suddenly, Sara fell to the ground in a cry of pain as ice crawled up her body, covering her arm and causing it to crust in the ice. Turning to face her new attacker, eyes burning with pain and fury, she saw a face she had long lost any hope of seeing again.

"Snart?" She asked, shocked.

"Hello, Miss Lance." Snart smirked at her. "Step away from my partner over there, before I turn the gun from your arm to your head."

/

Kara flew through the skies of National City alongside Kal, as Diana hovered behind them.

"So, what's the plan of attack?" Kara asked her cousin.

"I'm not sure, Zod is a master tactician and warrior, as you know." Kal told her. "Our best bet is to surprise him, surrender and when he comes to take us, take him down."

"We need every available gun and helper we can to stop Zod, you don't know the stories of him like I do, Kal. He's a monster." Kara warned him, shivering slightly at the thought of some of the atrocities Zod carried out in the final days of Krypton.

"I've called Bruce but I doubt we can count on his help this time." Kal informed her.

"J'onn will likely help us with everything he can." Kara told him.

"Whatever he throws at us, we'll stop him." Diana promised them, catching up to the two Kryptonians.

"How could he be here, now though?" Kara asked. Zod should have died long ago, trapped in the Phantom Zone by the High Council of Krypton. If he had escaped, why wasn't he with Astra and Non a few years ago?

'If only Barry was here.' Kara thought to herself, dwelling on the the loss of Barry, who had disappeared to who knew where. He had left her alone, and that stung worse than any punch from any villain ever could. She had feelings for Barry, and she knew he had them for her as well. How could he just abandon her and leave?

'Forget Barry.' Kara told herself. 'If I focus on him and not Zod, everything could go wrong. I need to stop Zod and protect the Earth.'

The three superheroes landed at the DEO, where they were met by the scowl of J'onn and the nervous face of Winn.

"So, we have a plan, right?" Winn asked, looking at everyone in fear.

"We do, we need your help, J'onn. We need every available person we can to take down Zod and his soldiers, both D.E.O agents and you, with us on the ground." Kara told him.

"I'll be there. What is your plan though for getting him?" J'onn asked.

"We plan to announce our surrender, when Zod comes to Earth to take us into custody, we'll attack." Kara said. "It's direct, but we need to take him off guard. Zod was a master soldier, if we went to him, fought on his terms, we'd lose."

"Well then, we best send a message of surrender." J'onn told her, saignalling for Winn to get to work on broadcasting to the Kryptonian ship in orbit.

/

"Snart, what happened to you?" Sara asked, horrified as he aimed his cold gun at her face.

"He doesn't know muchg of yopu, Miss Lance." Darkh smiled. "This is Leonard Snart from before youre time travellingh adventures started."

"You know, I hear I died to save you heroes." Snart remarked. "I'm not surprised, all you do-gooders made me weak. I'll take my revenge for my future death now."

"Leonard, I know there's good in you, why are you helping Darkh? He'll kikll you as soon as he's done with you." Sara pleaded with Snart.

"No he won't." Snart smirked, before turning his cold gun and blasting Darkh, caught unawares, the ice crawled over Darkh's body quickly, and encased him entirely in ice.

"What are you doing?!" Hal yelled ass he came down quickly, encasing Snart in a willpower cage with Firestorm landing next to them.

"As much as I don't want to do it, we need to somehow unthaw Darkh without killing him." Sara told Firestorm. "We need to put him back in his correct place in the timeline."

"Grey says he thinks we can do it, if we focus all of our energy and don't use our full power." Jax's voice told her as she nodded her consent, turning to face Hal with Snart still encased in his prison.

"Take him aboard the ship." She told Hal. "We best put him back in his rightful place as well."

"It won't save Mick." Snart taunted her as her blood ran cold.

"What did you do to him?" Sara asked, voice soft and dangerous. If Snart hurt a member of _her_ team.

"He'd become weak, like a pet." Snart spat at her. "Mick would hate himself if he could see what he had become. I put him out of his misery."

"You're lucky I can't kill you." Sara snarled as she took it all in. Mick may have been difficult, and god knows they fought time and time again, but he was a member of the Legends. He was family and Snart had taken a member of her family from her.

"Oh I know it burns at you." Snart taunted her. "Go ahead, end me."

"You don't deserve it." Hal told him simply, waving his hand and knocking Snart unconscious.

"We need to find Mick's...body." Sara stated sadly. "And we need to find this bomb. Quickly."

As the Legends finished off the rest of the Legion, Barry chased Thawne through the streets again, having hesistated long enough to let Thawne get back to his feet and race off. Turning a corner, he found Thawne stood next to a large, black device.

"Its over, Thawne. Surrender." Barry told him.

"Oh, it will be over soon, Barry." Thawne promised him as he flipped a switch on the device, which flashed up with 01:00 and then turned to 00:59.

"What will it be, Flash? Try to save the city and let me go, or stop me and die along with every inhabitant of Coast City? Your choice." Thawne grinned before speeding away, his job done.

Barry quickly rushed over to the bomb as it continued its coutdown and looked over it.

"Guys, I need you!" He called into his comm link to the Legends. "I found the bomb, Thawne has set it off, it's got forty seconds until Coast City goes up in smoke, how do I stop it?"

/

Kara and Kal hovered just above the ground, on the outskirts of National City as a larghe pod descended towards them from the sky. Behind them stood J'onn and Diana, surrounded by D.E.O agents and military personnel, trying to pass themselves off as civilians. When the pod opened and Zod stepped out, they'd attack.

As the pod landed before them, it opened and a figure strode out of it, oozing confidence, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"Kara Zor-El. Kal-El. We meet at last." The man smiled.

Kara took in the face of many of her nightmares, the man who had helped to destroy Krypton with the civil war in the final days of the planet.

"General Zod." She snarled.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next part, the next chapter will be the climax of these arcs and the beginning of the next

Barry stood, time seemed to go even slower than if he was racing through the streets, as he stared at the bomb, slowly ticking down. One wrong move, and it'd explode, thinking fast, he called out.

"Hal!" Barry yelled as the Green Lantern appeared above him. "I need you to fly the bomb as far from the city as you can in thirty seconds!"

"I can't get it away that fast, Barry." Hal told him. "I can take it skywards though, give the people a fireworks display." He smirked as he encased the bomb in a construct and rose further and further into the air, pulling the weapon with him as he rose through the atmosphere.

Barry watched as Hal rose higher and higher out of sight until a large explosion ripped through the sky, a massive bang and flames licking every corner of the skies above Coast City.

"HAL!" Barry yelled as his new friend seemed to be caught up in the blast.

Hearing nothing but static through his comms, he feared for the life of his new ally, when suddenly, he saw a red speck coming closer, with something green mixed in with it. As the speck came closer, Barry noticed that it was a man in a red suit, draped in a white cloak, electrical enetrgy surging around him, with Hal in his hands, clearly unconscious.

"What happened? Who are you?" Barry asked the figure who gently set Hal on the ground.

"He's fine, just unconscious, and as for who I am, let's just say I'm a friend." The man winked before taking off into the skies and flying away.

As Barry watched the strange figure disappear, he picked up Hal and carried him back towards the _Wave Rider_ , hurrying to get him to Gideon's med bay. As he carried Hal, he saw Jax carrying Sara, water dripping from her arm, Sara seemed badly injured herself, as Jax helped her back to the ship. He saw Darkh and Merlyn, both cuffed, and he saw Leonard Snart also cuffed being marched onto the ship.

"Snart?!" Barry called, shocked.

"Scarlet." Snart snarled, looking at him.

"How are you here?" Barry asked, confused and sorrowful as he remembered how Ray explained that Snart had died.

"I'll be gone soon, so it doesn't matter now, does it?" Snart growled as Ray marched him onto the ship, promising Sara that he'd help Gideon fix her arm up.

"How did you get Mr Jordan?" Stein asked Barry as he placed Hal in a chair in the med bay.

"Some guy flew down with him, said he was a friend and flew away." Barry said, as confused as Stein looked at his explanation.

"What about Thawne?" Ray asked Barry.

"He got away, but din't worry, I'll get him. We have his team and the Spear, he'll have to come to us. It's us with the advantage." Barry told him. "I'll stop him when he comes."

/

"The children of Krypton, finally reunited." Zod called out, raising his hands in the air in a welcoming gesture as Diana and J'onn slowly approached the two Supers, Kara and Kal took a step backwards into a defensive stance and the D.E.O agents all reached for their guns, Kryptonite bullets in most of their chambers.

"Shoot to incapacitate if you can, kill if you must." Kara had told them all at a large briefing a few hours before, shocking Kal who was stood beside her.

"Kara, what are you doing?" He said, grabbing his cousin by the arm and whispering furiously in her ear. Breaking free of his grasp, she turned to look Kal dead in the eye.

"You don't know Zod, Kal. You never saw what he did on Krypton. We can't let him harm anyone, and he will. If we give him an inch, Earth will burn."

"We don't kill, Kara." Kal reminder her, firmly.

"We'll give him a chance, but if he won't surrender, and I doubt he will, we take him out." Kara said in a tone that allowed for no argument.

"Zod." Kal nodded as the Kryptonian general's smiled tightened. Such insolence from the children of El.

"Young ones, together we can work together for a new and better Krypton. Come with me, please, back to our people." Zod said, holding his arms open in a welcoming gesture, to Kara and Kal though, it looked like a sick mocking gesture, a cruel joke.

"You're a lunatic, and a failure of the old Krypton." Kara spat at him as his eyes hardened.

"YOU DARE MOCK ME, DAUGHTER OF EL?!" Zod raged at Kara, his eyes heating up. "I AM KRYPTON'S SAVIOUR!" He screamed as beams of red hot fire flew from his eyes, scorching the ground between the three Kryptonians.

"You're a relic who helped to kill off Krypton." Kara taunted him again, her fear of Zod losing out to her recklessness as she goaded him and saw him fall for her barbs. With a scream, Zod launched himself into the air, flying high and away from the assembled group. Without a word, Kal and Kara took off after him through the skies, J'onn and Diana following closely behind.

"He doesn't know his own strengths on Earth!" Kal warned Kara. "He has no control, he'll be too dangerous." He tried to implore his cousin.

"Then I'll take him down." Kara promised as she pushed ahead of her cousin, trying to catch upto Zod first, who continued to fly through the air, beams of heat vision heading in all directions as he tried to comprehend the powers he had on this small blue marble of a planet.

"Kara!" J'onn called as well as she took off ahead of all of them, pushing herself to her limits to try and catcg upto Zod, all thoughts of her own safety banished, she had to stop him and protect the people, for that was her purpose, to protect the people of Earth.

"Kara!" Another voice called in her comms, quikcly shutting it off, for she knew if she listened to Alex, her sister would quickly convince her to stop her pursuit, fight as a team and come back to her. She had to do this, she had to take down Zod. Nobody else could get hurt. This was her purpose, why she had been sent to Earth. To protect her cousin and the people.

/

Barry paced on the bridge of the _Wave Rider_ as the Legends all milled around the rest of the ship.

"Gideon?" Barry asked the ships A.I mainframe.

"Yes, Creator?" Gideon replied.

"Can you detect Eobard Thawne in the timeline, relative to these events?"

"I have tried, Mr Allen. There are several possibilities that have appeared before me, I cannot be certain as to which of them he is truly in."

"Give me a list of all of them, Gideon." Barry told her. "I'm going on a hunt."

"Yes, Creator. What should I tell the team?"

"Gideon, you have to keep it a secret why I've gone." Barry implored her as her holographic head nodded its assent.

"I understand, Barry, I won't tell the team why you've gone." She said before relaying him the list of possible locations, nodding his thanks, he sped off from the bridge and out of the cargo doors, before racing to travel to the first of the locations.

"I never stated I wouldn't tell them where you went." Gideon said to the now empty bridge, waiting for the first person to ask her for Barry's location. She knew it wouldn't be long now.

Barry raced through the speed force, searching both places and times for Thawne, he knew he could bait the older man, not only was he delivering himself on a silver platter, but he brought something he knew Thawne would want. The Spear of Destiny was reunited finally, and tucked under his arm.

Reaching the final location on the list that Gideon had provided him, Barry raced towards a light in the distance, reaching a brightly lit room where he saw Thawne stood before him.

"I knew you'd get here before long, Barry. Here to end it all?"

"Something like that." Barry said, flexing the Spear slightly outwards, seeing Eobard fix his gaze on it. "You want this, Thawne?" Barry asked, a smirk on his face. "You can have it if you win."

"This will be over before too long." Eobard promised him.

Barry smiled at his words. "Oh it will be, you see, there's two of us in here, but only one of us is leaving this place and time alive."


	21. Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry faces Thawne as Kara faces Zod

“One of us? You think it will be you, do you, Barry?” Thawne snarled as he got ready to attack.

“Oh I know it will be Thawne, this has gone on long enough. You’ve hurt me, you’ve hurt my friends, you’ve killed people I love, people I care about, that ends today.” Barry promised him, eyes sparking with lightning as he felt the speed force envelop him, he could see that the same was happening to Thawne before the two speedsters charged towards one another, anger in their eyes as they began to exchange punches and kicks, racing around the room and out of the building into the streets.

Barry watched as Eobard ran around him and delivered an uppercut to his face, knocking Barry flying, the Spear of Destiny flying into the air, as Thawne turned to grab it, Barry tackled him from behind and slammed him into the floor, landing on Thawne’s back and delivering a series of punches into his back, causing Thawne to cry out in pain.

Grabbing Thawne and turning him over, Barry began punching his torso as well, seeing Thawne struggle on the floor.

“It’s over, Thawne!” Barry said, getting off of his defeated foe, who laid on the floor, exhausted.

“It’s over when one of us is dead.” Eobard spat as he stood unsteadily and charged at Barry once again, knocking Barry to the floor and grabbing the Spear of Destiny. “And now.” Thawne grinned before freezing as he heard an animalistic roar.

“No….NO!” Thawne said as he recognised the voice.

Barry grinned at him, rushing over in Thawne’s stupor and snatching the Spear away from his foe once again. As he did, a figure appeared, horrific with rotting flesh and eyes as dark as night.

“I’m sure you remember the Black Flash?” Barry asked Thawne.

/

Kara chased after Zod, leaving the others far behind, as the crazed Kryptonian flew through the air, no plan, heat vision erupting from his eyes and scorching the land whenever he landed.

As he fell to the Earth again and gave out another pain filled scream as the heat vision shot from his eyes and scorched the land ahead of him, Kara landed behind him.

“It’s over, General.” Kara shouted at him. “Surrender, and I promise no harm will come to you. I will help you.”

“You are a disgrace, Kara Zor-El.” Zod yelled back. “I would sooner die than be at your mercy!”

Kara launched herself at Zod, dodging his wild heat vision and punching him into the ground with a fist, before using her freeze breath to keep him pinned under a sheet of ice.

“Stay down!” She screamed as Kal and J’onn landed nearby, Diana shortly behind them.

“Kara! Stop!” J’onn pleaded as she stood over Zod, turning to J’onn, her eyes wet with tears.

“No, J’onn! He will yield. He has too!” Kara said.

“Kara, he will, but please, don’t do this. You need to step away, before he hurts you, or worse.” Kal said as he too approached his cousin, as Kara turned to him, Zod used the opportunity to attack, breaking through the ice and rising to the air, blasting all of them with heat vision before they could react and flying off into the air once more, as Diana rushed over to help J’onn, Kal turned to Kara rto see she had already taken off after Zod, and he quickly followed suit.

/

The Black Flash screeched again as Thawne stood there, stricken with fear.

“Doesn’t feel too good, does it, Thawne?” Barry taunted him. “I spoke with the speed force, turns out it doesn’t like paradoxes, how about that? And you, Eobard, you’re one hell of a paradox.”

“No….NO! I will not be taken like this!” Eobard yelled as he flashed from the room, the Black Flash hot on his tail. Barry followed behind, watching as Eobard raced through a portal, the Black Flash following behind. Slowing down, Barry let the two of them go, there was nowhere that Eobard could run that the Black Flash wouldn’t eventually find him, and Barry still held the Spear. Thawne wasn’t going to save himself that way. Barry slumped to the floor in exhaustion as the portal closed. Thawne was gone, and hopefully for a very long time.

“Barry?” A voice said from behind him. He turned to see Hal floating there, with Sara and Mick stood there, The _Wave Rider_ behind them.

“Come on Red, time to get you aboard.” Mick grumbled as he lifted Barry into his arms and carried him onto the ship.

“Time to get you home, I’m sure everyone in Central is wondering where you went.” Sara told him.

Barry weakly nodded his head, the fight having taken a lot out of him.

“Sure, just call Ollie, tell him to meet me at the graveyard. Take me to the day of Iris’ burial.” Barry told them.

/

Zod flew through the air as Kara punched him in the back and he span to the ground with a thud, Kara landing on top of him, her foot on his throat.

“Yield or die!” She screamed at him, looking around, she could see a family nearby, huddled in fear at the sight of the two Kryptonians fighting before them, with a grin, Zod blasted her back with heat vision and leapt at them, before being dragged off by Kal, who sent Zod flying with a punch, landing at Kara’s feet. Grabbing Zod in a headlock, she yelled at him “It’s over General!”

“It will never be over.” Zod promised her, eyes lighting again as he looked towards the family that Kal was trying to usher to safety. Seeing this, Kara turned her face to Zod.

“Don’t do this. Stop. Please.”

“You want to save this world, these people? Then you’ll have to kill me to do so, kill one of the last of your own people to save them.” Zod told her, his heat vision striking Kal and knocking him to the floor, he began blasting his twin beams towards the screaming family. (Yeah, I’m doing MoS, has been the plan for a while now to end this arc like it)

“Don’t make me do this, Zod!” Kara begged him.

“Watch these people die and know that you failed, Kara Zor-El!” Zod cried out as the beams began to reach the family.

With a pain filled cry, Kara twisted and heard the snap, saw the beams stop and felt a dead weight in her hands. Letting go, she watched as Zod’s body limply fell to the floor. Kara fell to her knees, feeling hot tears down her face as Kal came over to her, wrapped her in his arms and flew away, taking her back to National City and the DEO.

“Barry.” Kara weakly said through her tears. “Take me to Barry.”

/

“So that’s what happened, Ollie.” Barry said, as he caught up with Oliver after the graveyard.

“That’s rough, Barry. I just have to say, you can’t let it keep you down, you need to move ahead, its what keeps you better than I ever could be Barry, it’s what keeps you a shining light in terms of morality. You didn’t give into the hate. You didn’t kill Thawne, you stopped him. That’s all that matters.” Oliver assured him, seeing the pain in Barry’s eyes.

“But how can I, Ollie? I hurt everyone, I let them all down, and Kara, oh god, I just left her.” Barry said, eyes widening as he realised the full impact of his actions, he fell to his knees as Oliver caught him, holding him tightly as Barry shook, tears rolling down his face. Oliver wasn’t all that good at the emotional side of things, but he knew he’d always be there for Barry Allen when he needed him.

“You’ll get through this Barry, we all will, and as for Kara, she’ll forgive you, you know she will, she’s the only person who could match you for having a big heart.” Oliver tried to crack a smile as he heard Barry’s choked laughter, knowing he could make Barry just a little happier, that’d make him happy.

Barry let Oliver help him to his feet and as they turned to leave, the winds picked up behind them, turning around, they could see a blue portal forming in the air ahead of them, looking at the possible threat together, they let their guards down when they saw Kara walk through the portal, supported by her cousin. Locking eyes for the first time in weeks, Barry and Kara raced towards one another as fast as they could, and before Oliver could even blink, they had embraced once more, arms wrapped around one another, lips pressed together as they let weeks of tension, of pain and of grief spill out in a display of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I’ll probably get some stick for Kara killing Zod, and indirectly Barry has killed Thawne, but I like how MOS and the Injustice series have shown when heroes do kill, sometimes the only way for the hero to win and keep innocents safe is to cross the line and end the villain, Superman says to Batman in Injustice 2 “How many people have to die before you accept some lives need to be taken?” and I agree, is it better to let 1 madman live and kill millions to protect your moral code when if you just kill that one, all those millions survive? That’s just my take, feel free to contradict or oppose it.
> 
> Also before I get “Oliver is OOC” You’ve never seen Oliver Queen from the show Arrow if you don’t think he’d care for Barry in this way if Barry needed it.


	22. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Kara reunite as a new enemy rears their head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to have this arc a lot later in the story, but I’ve been inspired to move it up, especially as this arc will have a villain who just keeps on coming back.

The neon lights flashed in the club as the two men sat around the table, discussing recent developments in the city.

“I’m just saying, why not move the business to Metropolis?”

“Because the boss wants us to keep it here, that’s why.” The second man snarled.

“I’m just saying, Superman wouldn’t waste his time dealing with us, and the cops there are as useless as they are here, but the Batman, he could come for us at any moment.” The first man said, looking around as if he expected the Bat to appear out of thin air.

“You know we’re safe, as long as we keep doing what the boss wants, and make sure the parcels are in place, Batman won’t be coming for us, he’ll have far bigger fish to fry. Now shut it, look up, the boss is here.”

The two men looked up to see a figure approach the table, grinning at the two men as they sat down.

“Now, shall we get down to business?” He smiled manically at them.

/

Barry and Kara stood there, their arms wrapped around one another, their lips entwined, as Oliver stood by, looking away from the young couple. As the two of them broke apart, big grins on their faces, despite all they’d been through in the recent weeks, Oliver cleared his throat loudly.

“So, I take it you’re in good hands now Barry?” Oliver asked, not waiting for a reply before stalking off, towards where his motorcycle waited for him.

Watching Oliver leave, Barry and Kara turned to one another.

“Are you ok? What happened?” Barry asked, seeing the look of shock and the pain in Kara’s eyes.

“It…look, I don’t want to talk about it, not now.” Kara said after taking a moment to drink it all in, that Barry was here, in front of her, now. “What happened to you, Barry?”

“Kara…” Barry trailed, he knew she was holding something major back, and he needed to know if he could help her, but he didn’t know how he could push it without hurting her further. “Look, it…it doesn’t matter right now, a lot happened, and I’m not proud of it. I was in a bad place, I was hurting  and if it wasn’t for the Legends and a way to be a hero again, I don’t think I’d have come back from that place anytime soon. I’ll tell you about it, I swear, but not yet.” Barry told her, looking away in shame at the memory of his actions.

“I understand.” Kara said, looking down in sorrow. She knew she should talk about what had gone on with Zod, Barry would understand, he’d have too, and she knew that whatever had happened with him, with the Legends, he needed to open up and talk about it before he let it consume him as well. But she wasn’t ready just yet and she knew he wasn’t either. For now, she’d let it go, and just enjoy the feeling of his arms around her once again.

“Why did you come here, Kara?” Barry asked. “I’d have come to you, once I’d checked on everyone back here.” Barry told her.

“I needed to get away for a little while, I just needed to come check on you, make sure you were ok.” Kara told him, burying her head into his shoulder as she pulled him closer.

“I’ll be fine with you here.” Barry smiled into her hair as he leant into her touch, relishing the fact that he was here with her now, after weeks apart.

“Now, how about we go get some Big Belly Burger?” He asked with a grin as Kara’s eyes lit up.


End file.
